Backstory: How the CIA leak case began

‘Former Hill staffer’
A day later, in his second meeting with Miller, when the conversation turns to Wilson, Libby asks to be identified as a ''former Hill staffer'' if she writes about the subject. Miller, who spent 85 days in jail before agreeing to testify in the leak case, has told the grand jury that Libby told her about Wilson's wife at the same meeting.

Libby testified that the only purpose of his July 8 meeting with Miller was to transmit information concerning the NIE that discussed Iraq's nuclear weapons capability.

Russert call
On July 10, 2003, Libby spoke to NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert to complain about press coverage of Niger by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Russert testifies to the grand jury that Libby did not discuss Wilson's wife with him at all.

But Libby maintains that he believed he was learning about Wilson's wife's identity for the first time when he spoke with Russert in July regarding coverage of the Niger issue by Matthews.

When Libby testified before the grand jury on March 5, 2004, he said, according to the government's indictment: "Mr. Russert said to me, did you know that Ambassador Wilson's wife, or his wife works at the CIA? And I said, no, I don't know that. And then he [Russert] said, yeah -- yes all the reporters know it. And I said, again, I don't know that."

Cooper told Plame name coming from reporters
On July 12, 2003 Libby spoke with reporter Matt Cooper of Time Magazine.  Cooper asked whether Libby had heard that Wilson's wife was involved in sending Wilson on the trip to Niger. Libby, according to prosecutors confirmed to Cooper, without elaboration or qualification, that he had heard this information too.

"I was very clear to say reporters are telling us that because in my mind I still didn't know it as a fact. I thought I was -- all I had was this information was coming in from reporters," Libby told the grand jury, according to the indictment.

Miller's last conversation
That same day Libby spoke again to New York Times reporter Judy Miller.  Prosecutors say Miller asked Libby again about Plame's wife. According to his grand jury testimony, Libby stated, "I said to her that, that I didn't know if it was true, but that reporters had told us that the ambassador's wife works at the CIA, that I didn't know anything about it."

Novak makes Plame public
It is not until July 14, 2003 that columnist Robert Novak publicly reveals that Wilson's wife, ''Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.'' Novak's column prompts an investigation into whether government officials disclosed her identity.

CIA leak probe begins
On September 26, 2003 the Department of Justice authorized the FBI to commence a criminal investigation into the possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA to various reporters in the spring of 2003.

Libby indicted
On October 28, 2005 Libby is charged with:

• Obstruction of Justice:
  The indictment charges that Libby did “knowingly and corruptly endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice... by misleading and deceiving the grand jury” about when and how he learned that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA
• False Statements: two counts:
  Libby is charged with making false statements to F.B.I. investigators during their interviews with him on Oct. 14 and Nov. 26, 2003, about his conversations with Russert and Cooper.
• Perjury: two counts:
  Libby is charged with committing perjury before the grand jury on March 5 and March 24, 2004, when testifying about his conversations with Russert and Cooper.

Joel Seidman is an NBC producer based in Washington, D.C.

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