By The Associated Press
Mon July 2, 2007
A timeline of events leading up to the commutation of former
White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 2 1/2-year
prison sentence. Libby was convicted and sentenced for lying
and obstructing an investigation into the leak of CIA operative
Valerie Plame's name.
2003:
_Jan. 28: President Bush asserts in his State of the Union
address: "The British government has learned that Saddam
Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa."
_March 19-20: The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq begins.
_May 6: New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof reports
that a former ambassador, whom he does not name, had been sent
to Niger in 2002 and reported to the CIA and State Department
well before Bush's speech that the uranium story was unequivocally
wrong and was based on obviously forged documents.
_May 29: Libby asks Marc Grossman, an undersecretary of state,
for information about the ambassador's travel to Niger. Grossman
later tells Libby that Joseph Wilson was the former ambassador.
_June 11 or 12: Grossman tells Libby that Wilson's wife works
at the CIA and that State Department personnel are saying Wilson's
wife was involved in planning the trip. A senior CIA officer
gives him similar information, as does Cheney's top press aide,
Cathie Martin, who had learned it from CIA spokesman Bill Harlow.
_June 11 or 12: Cheney advises Libby that Wilson's wife works
at the CIA.
_June 13: Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward interviews
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage for a book. Armitage
tells Woodward in a taped interview that Wilson's wife works
for the CIA.
_June 14: Libby meets with a CIA briefer and discusses "Joe
Wilson" and his wife, "Valerie Wilson."
_June 23: Libby meets with Times reporter Judith Miller. During
the meeting, Miller says, Libby tells her that Wilson's wife
might work at a bureau of the CIA. Libby denies saying that.
_July 6: The New York Times publishes an opinion piece by
Wilson under the headline "What I Didn't Find in Africa" and
he appears on NBC's "Meet the Press." Wilson said
he doubted Iraq had recently obtained uranium from Niger and
thought Cheney's office was told of the results of his trip.
_July 7: Libby meets with then-White House Press Secretary
Ari Fleischer. Fleischer says Libby tells him that Wilson's
wife works at the CIA and that the information is "hush
hush." Libby denies that.
_July 8: Libby meets with Miller again. She recalls Libby
saying he believes Wilson's wife works for the CIA. Libby denies
telling her that.
• July 8: Columnist Robert Novak interviews Armitage,
who tells him that Wilson's wife works for the CIA. Novak says
this was confirmed the next day by White House political adviser
Karl Rove.
_July 10: Libby calls NBC newsman Tim Russert to complain
about a colleague's news coverage. At the end of the conversation,
Libby says, Russert tells him that "all the reporters
know" that Wilson's wife works at the CIA. Libby says
he was surprised to hear that. Russert denies saying it.
_July 11: Fleischer, on a presidential trip to Africa, tells
two reporters that Wilson's wife works for the CIA. Rove tells
Time Magazine's Matthew Cooper that Wilson's wife works for
the CIA.
_July 12: Libby speaks to Cooper and confirms to him that
he has heard that Wilson's wife was involved in sending Wilson
on the trip. Libby also speaks to Miller and discusses Wilson's
wife and says that she works at the CIA. Libby claims he told
Cooper and Miller he only knew about Plame from talking to
other reporters.
_July 12: Walter Pincus of The Washington Post says Fleischer
tells him that Wilson's wife works at the CIA. Fleischer doesn't
recall that.
_July 14: Columnist Novak reports that Wilson's wife is a
CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction and that two senior
administration officials, whom Novak did not name, said she
suggested sending her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium
story.
_Sept. 26: A criminal investigation is authorized to determine
who leaked Plame's identity to reporters. Disclosing the identity
of CIA operatives is illegal. A short time later, Armitage
tells investigators that he may have inadvertently leaked Plame's
identity to Woodward.
_Oct. 14 and Nov. 26: Libby is interviewed by FBI agents.
_Dec. 30: U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago,
an aggressive career prosecutor, is named to head the leak
investigation after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft takes
himself out of the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict
of interest.
2004:
_January: A grand jury begins investigating possible violations
of federal criminal laws.
_March 5 and March 24: Libby testifies before the grand jury.
In a tape of his testimony, Libby tells jurors that he forgot
the information about Plame working for the CIA until he heard
it from Russert. Anything he told reporters, he says, was just
chatter passed on from that conversation.
2005:
_Oct. 28: Libby is indicted on five counts: obstruction of
justice and two counts each of false statement and two counts
of perjury.
2006:
_Sept. 7: Armitage admits he leaked Plame's identity to Novak
and to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. Armitage says he
did not realize Plame's job was covert.
2007:
_Jan. 16: Jury selection begins in Libby's trial.
_Jan. 23: Prosecution and defense lawyers make opening statements
to the jury and U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.
_Feb. 20: Prosecution and defense attorneys make closing statements.
_Feb. 21: Jurors begin deliberations.
_March 6: Jurors return guilty verdicts on charges of obstruction,
perjury and lying to the FBI. A not guilty verdict was returned
on one count of lying to an FBI agent.
_June 5: Walton sentences Libby to 2 1/2 years in prison.
_June 14: Walton refuses to delay Libby's sentence.
• June 19: Libby asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit to delay his sentence until
deciding the appeal of his conviction.
_June 28: The U.S. Bureau of Prisons assigns Libby an inmate
number; he becomes federal inmate No. 28301-016.
• July 2, 12:19 p.m. EDT: The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit announces its decision
refusing to delay Libby's prison sentence.
• July 2, 5:25 p.m. EDT: President Bush commutes Libby's
sentence, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term. Bush leaves
intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby.
(This version CORRECTS time to July 2, 12:19 p.m. EDT.)
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