Scooter Libby

I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby

Irve Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Jr. (born August 22, 1950) is a Jewish American lawyer who was U.S. Vice President Richard Bruce ("Dick") Cheney's chief of staff, assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, as well as assistant to President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2005.

During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby served in the Department of Defense as principal deputy under secretary (Strategy and Resources), and later was confirmed by the Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy.

On October 28, 2005, Libby resigned his government position, hours after being indicted by a U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel as part of the CIA leak grand jury investigation into how Valerie Plame was exposed as a CIA employee. In January 2006 Libby joined the Hudson Institute as a senior advisor, with a focus on "issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia." Libby's trial, United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby", which resulted from his indictment by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation, began on January 16, 2007.

Personal

Libby's name and nicknames

Libby's legal name as presented in United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby includes the initial "I." instead of a first name.

While Libby, generally known as "Scooter" or "Lewis," has not been forthcoming about his first name, the "I." stands for "Irve," the first name of his father, Irve Lewis Libby Sr., according to Stephen Smith, of CBS News, Mike Pesca of National Public Radio, and some other news media sources which have checked various records.

Libby has provided various accounts of how he acquired his nickname "Scooter." On some occasions Libby has claimed that his nickname, "Scooter," derives from a childhood comparison to "the Scooter" Phil Rizzuto, whereas on other occasions he has claimed that it was given to him by his father who, on seeing him move quickly across his crib, described him as "a scooter."

Beginning in 2001, Libby was nicknamed "Germ-Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination.

Libby's "constant presence behind the scenes in the Bush administration" brought him the nickname "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney."

Early life and family

Libby was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to a Jewish family and raised in Florida. His father was a successful investment banker.

Education

After graduating from Eaglebrook School and Andover, exclusive New England boarding schools, Libby graduated from Yale University in 1972, where his professor Paul Wolfowitz became his political influence and mentor.

Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School in 1975. Libby is married to Harriet Grant, a former staff lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee when chaired by Democratic Senator Joe Biden. Libby and Grant have two children and live in McLean, Virginia.

Law career

After graduating from Columbia, Libby was admitted to practice before the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and he practiced law in Philadelphia. He was admitted to practice before the Bar of the District of Columbia on May 19, 1978.

One of Libby's most infamous clients in his work as a private lawyer was fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who had been convicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Libby "represented Rich dating back to 1985 but stopped working for him in the spring of 2000"; the following year, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby denied that Rich had violated any tax laws.

Libby first entered government service in the United States Department of State in 1981, as a member of the Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Secretary. From 1982 to 1985 he served in that department as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby served in the United States Department of Defense as principal deputy under secretary (Strategy and Resources), and later was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy. Libby co-authored the draft of the "Defense Planning Guidance" with Paul Wolfowitz for the then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in 1992.

Libby has also, at various times in his career, held positions with the American Bar Association, been on the advisory board of the RAND Corporation's Center for Russia and Eurasia, and been a legal advisor to the United States House of Representatives. He has consulted for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman. He has also been active in the Defense Policy Board of the Pentagon while it was chaired by Richard Perle. Libby was a founding member of the Project for the New American Century. He joined Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and others in writing its 2000 report titled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century."

Creative writing

In 1996 Libby published a novel entitled The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903 during a smallpox epidemic. In an interview, after telling Larry King the plot and describing how he turned a college project into this novel, he enthusiastically endorsed King's suggestion that one day it might become a "movie":

KING: This sounds like a movie.

LIBBY: Well, you know, say it louder.
KING: Your lips to God, right?

LIBBY: Right.

The Plame affair, Libby, and Judith Miller

Further information: [[:CIA leak grand jury investigation, Plame affair, and Plame scandal timeline]]

In 2003 and 2004, intense speculation about Libby centered on the possibility that he may have been the administration official who "leaked" the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA employee whose identity was classified.

The American Prospect revealed in August 2005 that Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a newspaper journalist, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Wilson's wife with Miller at that time, but later revealed to be misidentified in Miller's notes as "Valerie Flame."

Before that, Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005, for contempt of court after refusing to testify to the grand jury about this meeting despite a signed blanket waiver from Libby allowing journalists to discuss their conversations. Miller has argued that Libby's waiver to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify if given an individual waiver, which Miller received after serving most of her sentence. The waiver was offered "voluntarily and personally" by Libby, accompanied by a letter which has been the subject of much speculation:

As noted above, my lawyer confirmed my waiver to other reporters in just the way he did with your lawyer. Why? Because as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.

. . . .
You went to jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats, bird flu and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—-and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

With admiration, Scooter Libby."

Miller was released on September 29, 2005 after agreeing to testify. She appeared before the grand jury on September 30, but was not relieved of contempt until she testified again on October 12. For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously-undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, several weeks before Wilson's New York Times editorial was published. According to Miller's notes from that earlier meeting, Libby disclosed that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA employee involved in her husband's trip to Niger. Miller's notebook from her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby contains the name "Valerie Flame."

On August 30, 2006 The New York Times reported that Deputy Secretary of State Department Richard Armitage was the "initial and primary source" for columnist Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 article, which named Valerie Plame as a CIA "operative". CNN reported also that Armitage had been confirmed "by sources" as disclosing Mrs. Wilson's CIA role in a "casual conversation" with Robert Novak.

According to lawyers close to Libby, "the information about Mr. Armitage’s role may help Mr. Libby convince a jury that his actions were relatively inconsequential".

Fitzgerald has issued no statement about Armitage's involvement, and, as of February 2007, the CIA leak investigation remains open.

Indictment, resignation, and trial

Main article: United States v. Libby

On October 28, 2005, Libby resigned from his position in the White House, immediately after he was indicted on criminal felony charges by a grand jury. He was charged with five felonies:

• one count of obstruction of justice;
• two counts of perjury; and
• two counts of making false statements.

Each count in the five-count indictment against Libby in United States v. Libby carries a $250,000 fine; thus, if convicted, Libby could face up to $1.25 million in fines. The charges also carry a maximum prison term of thirty years. Neither Libby nor any other Bush Administration officials have to date been charged with the crime of revealing the identity of a CIA agent, the original focus of the investigation. Rather, all charges to date are for allegedly lying to investigators and to the grand jury, for perjury, and for obstruction of justice.

Libby told investigators that he first heard of Plame's CIA employment from journalist Tim Russert and that he had forgotten that Vice President Dick Cheney had already told him that information. The indictments charge that all of these alleged statements of Libby's were false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Plame's CIA employment before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Plame's CIA employment; Libby knew for a certainty that Plame was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that Plame worked for the CIA without any disclaimer that he did not know whether this was true or not. The "false statements" charges in the Libby indictment stem from its allegation that he made these claims to the FBI; the "perjury" charges, from the allegation that he repeated these claims to the grand jury; and the "obstruction" charge, from the allegation that Libby made these statements in an effort to prevent Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation from uncovering the truth.

Libby, who was questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testified before a Federal grand jury on March 5, 2004, and again on March 24, 2004, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. According to NewsMax.com, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel during the CIA leak scandal, testified in January 2007 that Libby bluntly told him, "I just want to tell you , I didn't do it."

Libby retains attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him in the case. Wells is known for successfully defending Clinton Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and participating in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.

On January 23, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Wells alleged "that administration officials sought to blame Libby for the leak to protect Bush political adviser Karl Rove's own disclosures."

After Libby's motion to dismiss was denied, the press initially reported that he would testify at the trial. In February 2007, during the trial, however, numerous press reports stress that whether or not he will testify is still uncertain.

Press coverage of the trial

Main article: United States v. Libby

The trial in the case of the United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby began on January 16, 2007.

Blogs have played an especially prominent, even historic, role in the press coverage of this trial. Scott Shane, in his article "For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder," published in The New York Times on February 15, 2007, quotes Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, who observes that United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby is "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media.".

On January 3, 2007, the first team of bloggers to announce that they had been granted press credentials was Firedoglake, a progressive blog founded by Jane Hamsher. Less than a week later, on January 9, 2007, the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) announced that several of its affiliated bloggers had been granted press credentials too.

Among those representing the traditional press media––what many bloggers term the "mainstream media", or "MSM"––reporter David Shuster began live blogging the trial for MSNBC on Hardblogger, an online feature linked at Hardball with Chris Matthews, as well as reporting on camera in segments of variious MSNBC News programs. A transcript of Schuster's broadcast report on the first day of the trial, during which Schuster says that the prosecution summarized evidence to support its allegations that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in Libby's actions relating to the Plame affair, is posted on several of these news blogs.

Media Bloggers Association (MBA), which describes itself as a "non-partisan organization" for promoting blogging as a distinct form of media, presents a live media feed syndicating both liberal and right-wing blog posts. The MBA also has an agreement with the Associated Press to run coverage by bloggers on the AP wire.

Some controversy arose among various bloggers about who is primarily responsible for acquiring Libby trial press credentials, with numerous mainstream-media accounts, including The Washington Post, giving Cox and his Media Bloggers Association credit:

...for the first time in a federal court, two of these seats [in the actual courtroom] will be reserved for bloggers. After two years of negotiations with judicial officials across the country, the Media Bloggers Association, a nonpartisan group with about 1,000 members working to extend the powers of the press to bloggers, has won credentials to rotate among his members. The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the highest-ranking Bush administration official to face criminal charges, could "catalyze" the association's efforts to win respect and access for bloggers in federal and state courthouses, said Robert Cox, the association's president.

Robert Cox is trying to foster standards. His Media Bloggers Association won court credentials for bloggers....

Bloggers from Firedoglake disputed some of these claims. Scott Shane's article in The New York Times contains the following "appended correction":

[The] front-page article on Thursday about bloggers covering the perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. referred imprecisely to the role of Robert A. Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, in securing credentials. Mr. Cox negotiated access for his association, which was the first blogger group to be granted credentials to cover the trial. He did not negotiate on behalf of firedoglake.com and other blogs that received their credentials later.

Shane concludes: "With no audio or video feed permitted, the Firedoglake 'live blog' has offered the fullest, fastest public report available. Many mainstream journalists use it to check on the trial."

On February 7, 2007, during the examination of journalist Tim Russert, as covered on MSNBC, video clips of Libby's Grand Jury testimony were played; Russert's current testimony contradicts key parts of Libby's previous testimony, in that on the stand Russert denied that he told (or even could have told) Libby about Mrs. Wilson's working for the CIA, as Libby has claimed.

In addition to their blogging, Jane Hamsher (creator of Firedoglake), Marcy Wheeler (author of the recently-published book Anatomy of Deceit), and/or Jeralyn Merritt, criminal defense attorney and founder of TalkLeft, who has been cross-posting at The Huffington Post, have also been appearing on camera via PoliticsTV.com at the end of most days to sum up that day's legal proceedings directly observed in the courtroom, providing links to these video programs in their online accounts. For example, they appeared on camera to present their views of February 14, 2007, the day the defense rested, and will do a similar roundup at the end of the trial, covering the closing arguments for the prosecution and the defense, with the prosecution speaking last, as Merritt observed. As they and others in the media have reported, neither Libby nor Cheney would be testifying in the case. Libby's defense team plans to present a four-hour closing argument, which will begin on Tuesday, February 20, 2007.

External links

• CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN; incl. interactive timeline in Case History. Last updated, February 2007, to include Libby trial events. Accessed February 17, 2007.
• "Legal Affairs: Lewis Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony." Full audio clip and transcript provided by National Public Radio on npr.org February 7, 2007. Accessed February 17, 2007. (8 hours.)
• Libby Legal Defense Trust. Website sponsored by friends and supporters of I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby. Updated periodically. Accessed February 17, 2007.
  • News at Libby Legal Defense Trust. News reports; links to "Legal Filings" and "Statements" relating to Libby's defense in United States v. Libby.
• Scooter Libby Archived White House biography from 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
• Template:Pdflink United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Filed January 10, 2007. Accessed February 10, 2007.

See also

• CIA leak grand jury investigation
• Plame affair
• Plame affair criminal investigation
• Plame affair timeline
• United States v. Libby