Pressured for months to pardon Libby by hard-line voices in the conservative establishment, Pres. Bush opted to commute the 30-month prison sentence, leaving the former vice-presidential aide with a $250,000 fine. Libby was convicted of lying to federal prosecutors and obstruction of justice for his actions during the investigation of the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. [Full Story]

JURY FINDS LIBBY GUILTY OF LYING, OBSTRUCTION
EX-TOP-AIDE TO VP CHENEY IS HIGHEST GOV'T OFFICIAL CONVICTED OF CRIME SINCE JOHN POINDEXTER IN 1980s IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL
7 March 2007

The case was complex and convoluted, and risked jeopardizing numerous fundamental values of American liberty and jurisprudence. One reporter was sent to prison and many were subpoenaed and forced to give up their sources. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has said the case is now closed, though no one has been charged with the leak of classified information itself. [Full Story]

CIA AGENT WHOSE COVER WAS BLOWN BY WHITE HOUSE LEAK FILES SUIT AGAINST VP
VALERIE PLAME, JOSEPH WILSON HAVE FILED A CIVIL LAWSUIT FOR MALICIOUS DISCLOSURE
16 July 2006

In the summer of 2003, after victory had been declared in the invasion of Iraq, then career undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's name was illegally leaked to the press by as yet undetermined government officials, effectively ending her undercover work and potentially endangering her life. Now she is filing suit against VP Cheney, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, and 10 unnamed administration officials for maliciously blowing her cover. [Full Story]

COURT FILING CITES 'CONCERTED EFFORT' TO ATTACK CRITICS
WASH. POST REPORTS WHITE HOUSE EFFORT TO USE TOP SECRET INFORMATION TO ATTACK CRITICS OF IRAQ POLICY
9 April 2006

Regardless of whether the president or the vice president have done anything illegal, it is now clear that they were both involved in deliberately using classified national security information to smear a critic of their Iraq policy. This contradicts statements made as recently as last week which suggest that the president opposed any such use of sensitive information for personal or political gain. [Full Story]

PRES. BUSH LINKED TO LEAK OF INFORMATION TO PRESS
LIBBY SAYS BUSH DECLASSIFIED SENSITIVE IRAQ INTEL TO PERMIT HIM TO LEAK IT TO JUDITH MILLER
7 April 2006

As the case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby proceeds, for violating the federal law prohibiting the disclosure of the classified identities of undercover agents, he has reportedly testified to a grand jury that Pres. Bush was directly involved in the leaking of other information to the press. [Full Story]

LIBBY CHARGED WITH PERJURY, OBSTRUCTION, RESIGNS
29 October 2005

The office of the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, investigating the leaking of the classified identity of an undercover CIA agent, announced Friday a 5-count indictment [PDF] against Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby. Libby was charged on 1 count of obstruction of justice, 2 counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury. [Full Story]

The New York Times is reporting that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has discovered, in notes from a previously unknown conversation between VP Dick Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, that Cheney informed Libby of the status of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. [Full Story]

NYT reporter Judith Miller has reportedly received a formal waiver from her confidential White House source to testify. She was released from prison on 29 September, after agreeing to speak to the grand jury investigating the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name by top government officials in the summer of 2003.

By the time of her release, Miller had served 85 days in custody... [Full Story]

In Washington, DC, today, House and Senate Democrats held a hearing examining the national security and legal implications of the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity to the press. A group of prominent and respected former intelligence officers, both Democrats and Republicans, answered questions and testified about the far-reaching implications of what they described as an "unprecedented" breach of national security. [Full Story]

CIA MEMO COULD YIELD CLUES IN LEAK PROBE
20 July 2005

Prosecutors have discovered a key piece of evidence in the investigation into the leaking of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame by someone in the White House in the summer of 2003. The classified memo was authored in June 2003, just after Amb. Joseph Wilson published an article debunking the administration's Iraq-Niger uranium claims. [Full Story]

WHAT THE LAW SAYS ABOUT LEAKING COVERT OP INFO
14 July 2005

Supporters of Karl Rove, spokespeople for the Republican party and talking points issued to party members, press and pundits have been eagerly asserting that Karl Rove violated no law when he revealed that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was an "agency" operative, because he did not state her name. In fact, this is plainly false: the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, the applicable federal law, states that revealing "any
information identifying such covert agent to any individual not
authorized to receive classified information" constitutes a violation of the law and can result in $50,000 in fines and/or 10 years in prison. [Full Story]

WHO KNEW ABOUT THE LEAK?
12 July 2005

Evidence arising out of the notes and testimony of reporters subpoenaed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in his investigation of the outing of an undercover CIA agent by administration officials points to the involvement of Karl Rove, Bush's top political advisor. As the evidence mounts, the White House has now begun to refuse to answer questions about the matter. Democrats openly call for Rove's dismissal. [Full Story]

IS PRESS FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK BY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR?
11 July 2005

A new Economist article ends with a warning to serious journalists to "beware". Clearly something has shifted in the media climate, and in the political climate, where the rule of law, in a nation where the Constitution provides an absolute right to publish, has come to mean the government may dictate what news sources are and are not permissible, where press freedom runs afoul of particular prosecutions. [Full Story]

JUDGE IMPRISONS REPORTER FOR REFUSING TO REVEAL SOURCE
6 July 2005

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been jailed by a Special Prosecutor investigating the leak by White House officials of the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press. She could face up to four months in prison, for violating a court order which she believes runs contrary to the constitutionally protected press freedoms. Investigating who in the White House leaked the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press in the summer of 2003, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had demanded full testimony by reporters Judith Miller (of The New York Times) and Matthew Cooper (of TIME) regarding the identity of the sources they used to write stories about the controversy. [Full Story]

FBI WANTS NAMES IN LEAK PROBE
12 January 2004

According to NBC News, the FBI has requested that certain senior officials in the Bush administration "to release reporters from confidentiality", freeing them to confirm whether they were the source for the leak of the name of an undercover CIA agent last year, without violating their journalistic ethics. Some media professionals are worried, saying the move is without precedent. Experts further indicate there is likely no legal support for the request, as courts routinely recognize source-protection privilege as belonging to the journalist, not the source.