Scooter Libby

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. (born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer who was Vice President 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 on five felony counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of perjury) by a U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel as part of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, an ongoing federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee's identity," a possible violation of criminal statutes, including the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, and Title 18, United States Code, Section 793. Libby's indictment, while very serious, did not result in counts of his violating those particular statutes, which would carry far greater penalties and punishment for one convicted.

In January 2006, after his resignation from the Bush administration, 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."

As a result of his indictment by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation, Libby's criminal trial, in United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby", began on January 16, 2007.

Personal history

Libby was born to a "prosperous family" in New Haven, Connecticut––his father was an "investment banker"––and "raised in Florida." After graduation from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1972 he was graduated from Yale University and in 1975 he received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School, where he was intensely influenced by his professor Paul Wolfowitz, who became his political "mentor".

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.

According to Ron Kampeas, in a widely-cited and widely-reprinted article published in The Jerusalem Post, Libby is "a member of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va," close to his Mclean, Virginia, home. Libby's Jewish heritage has been the subject of debate and controversy in the mass media, including both the traditional press and the blogosphere, by both critics and supporters of the Bush administration, and, most particularly, by those following the CIA leak grand jury investigation and Libby's subsequent trial in United States of America v. Libby, when interest in his personal history heightened.

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.

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 entitled, "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. After Libby's grand jury indictment, his publisher (St. Martin's Press [Griffin]) reprinted the novel, described as "an everyday tale of bestiality and paedophilia in 1903 Japan...[and] packed with sexual perversion, dwelling on prepubescent girls and their training as prostitutes": "One passage describes a girl being thrown into a cage 'with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons....They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. Groups of men paid to watch.'" In an interview, after telling Larry King a more general account of 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 5 March 2004, and again on 24 March 2004, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 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 stressed that whether or not he will testify was still uncertain, and, ultimately, he did not testify at trial.

The jury received the case for their deliberation on 21 February 2007.

Press coverage of the trial

Main article: United States v. Libby § Press coverage of the trial

Blogs have played a prominent 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."

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