Fact check
Is it true: Niger yellowcake forgery + Plame affair (2002-2007)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
Partially true. The Niger documents were found not authentic by the IAEA in March 2003, Joseph Wilson's 2002 trip and his 6 July 2003 New York Times article are documented, Valerie Plame's CIA employment was given to reporters in June and July 2003 (published by Novak on 14 July 2003), and Libby was convicted in 2007 of obstruction, perjury and false statements (Bush commuted the prison term; Trump pardoned him in 2018). Not established: that officials knowingly relied on the forgeries (the 2004 Butler Review judged the British claim behind the 'sixteen words' "well-founded"), that Wilson's findings were suppressed (the Senate Intelligence Committee found his report did not change any analyst's assessment), or that the disclosure was retaliation (Richard Armitage was Novak's original source, no one was charged with the disclosure itself, and Libby's conviction was for lying to investigators).
The claim
Forged documents alleging that Iraq sought uranium yellowcake from Niger were used to support the case for the 2003 Iraq War, and when former ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly disputed the claim, officials in the Bush White House retaliated by exposing his wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA officer.
Key evidence
IAEA declared Niger documents forgeries, March 2003
No one was ever criminally charged for the underlying leak of Plame's identity
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