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I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr.
Occupation(s)former lawyer
former chief of staff to the Vice President
SpouseHarriet Grant
ChildrenTwo
Criminal chargeObstruction of justice
False statements
Perjury
Penalty30 months in prison (commuted by President George W. Bush in a Grant of Executive Clemency)
$250,000 fine
Two years of supervised release

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. (born August 22 1950) served as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, and an assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.[1][2] He resigned from his senior White House position hours after he was indicted in federal court on five felony counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury in the CIA leak grand jury investigation into the "Plame affair".[3][4] In United States v. Libby, Libby was found guilty on four of the five counts and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, a fine of $250,000, and two years of supervised release.[5][6]

Libby is the first sitting White House official to be indicted in 130 years[7] and the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a federal-level government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair in 1990.[8]

Before being indicted, Libby was a licensed corporate lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Libby's law license is inactive in Pennsylvania, and he is not currently licensed to practice law there, according to its Supreme Court disciplinary board.[9] In April 2007 the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (DC Bar) disbarred him on legal grounds of "moral turpitude" and recommended to the DC Court of Appeals his permanent disbarment if his conviction is not overturned on appeal.[10][11][12] While Libby's appeal in United States v. Libby is still pending, the presiding judge, Reggie Walton, denied his request for a stay and ordered Libby to begin his prison sentence.[13] Libby appealed Walton's ruling the following week.[14] Two weeks later he lost that appeal.[15][16][17] Within hours, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence, eliminating the prison term while not changing the other parts and their conditions.[18][19] As President Bush observes in his public statement, "The reputation [Scooter Libby] gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged."[19]

Personal history

Background and education

Libby was born to an affluent family in New Haven, Connecticut; his father was an investment banker.[20] The Libby family lived in the Washington, D.C. region, Miami, and Connecticut.[1][21][22]

In 1965 Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he was a co-captain of the debating team, according to his old friend, former roommate and co-captain Nick Bromell, who is now professor of English and director of graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts.[22]

Libby and his older brother, Hank, were the first in the family to graduate from college.[1] In 1972 he graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, where he met his future mentor, Paul Wolfowitz.[1][20][23]

He received his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Columbia Law School in 1975.[24]

Marriage and family

Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin: "'When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner.'" Later, Grant worked as a staff lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, becoming "one of the senior Democratic lawyers to interview Anita Hill during the [1991] Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas."[25][26] Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.[25][27]

Name and nickname

Various news accounts report that Libby has been secretive about his actual first name, and that the initial "I." stands for Irving; or, alternatively, abbreviations of "Irving" — "Irv" or "Irve."[28][27][1] Eric Schmitt says that he learned the "secret" of Libby's first initial from telephoning Hank Libby, who told Schmitt that the 'I' stands for 'Irv'.[26][28] These various news sources offer contradictory information about his actual given name and its correct spelling.

According to Schmitt and others, Libby first acquired his nickname "Scooter" as an infant, when his father, after seeing him move quickly across his crib, jokingly compared him to "a scooter," exclaiming: "'He's a Scooter!'"[26][1][24] In their February 2002 interview on Larry King Live, King asked Libby specifically, "Where did "Scooter" come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... [crosstalk] ... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto [nicknamed "The Scooter"]. I had the range but not the arm."[29][27][30]

The Apprentice

The Apprentice

Main article: The Apprentice (book)

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, generally described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."[31][32] First published in paperback by St. Martin's (Thomas Dunne Books) in 2002, it was reissued in paperback by St. Martin's Griffin imprint in 2005, after Libby's indictment that October.[32][33]

After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal, and Lewis, becoming a partner the following year, in 1976.[25] He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976.[9][25][34] He practiced law there for six years until joining the State Department under Paul Wolfowitz, then head of State’s policy planning staff.[25] In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin (now Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin, and Oshinsky), where he became a partner in 1986.[25][34][9] He was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.[10][35]

Beginning in 1995, Libby served as the Managing Partner of the Washington office of the international law firm of Dechert, Price, and Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP); he was a member of the firm's litigation department, and he chaired the Washington office's Public Policy Practice Group.[2][34]

One of Libby's clients in his work as a private litigator 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; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecutions's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". [36] According to Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, as quoted in the already-cited U.S. News & World Report article by Walsh, "'He is intensely partisan...in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in.'"[20]

At various points throughout his professional career, Libby has also 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, as well as served as a consultant for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.[34]

After his conviction in United States v. Libby, Libby's was temporarily disbarred from the District of Columbia bar. He is on inactive status in Pennsylvania. Therefore, he is not currently licensed to practice law in either Washington, D.C. or Pennsylvania, respectively.[10][9]

Government public service and political career

At Yale Libby was vice president of the student Democrats.[30] After working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby went to work for Paul Wolfowitz as a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff.[34] From 1982 to 1985, according to his official U.S. State Department biography, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.[2] In 1985, he resigned and entered private legal practice. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, once again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary of defense for strategy and resources.

In 1993 Libby was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award. He had received the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service in 1985.[34][2] During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy.[2] In 1992, he served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China.[34] Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994-99 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense

Libby became part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans" — its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. [24] While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, Libby was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (a document dated June 3, 1997).[24][37] He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century".[24][34][38][39][40]

Further information: Project for the New American Century § "Fundamental propositions", and Project for the New American Century § Rebuilding America's Defenses

After becoming Cheney's chief of staff in 2001, Libby was reportedly nicknamed "Germ Boy" at the White House, for insisting on universal smallpox vaccination.[41] His was also nicknamed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" for his close working relationship with the Vice President. Mary Matalin, who worked with Libby as an adviser to Cheney during Bush's first term, said of him "He is to the vice president what the vice president is to the president."[24][38]

Libby was active in the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee of the Pentagon when it was chaired by Richard Perle during the early years of the George W. Bush administration (2001-2003).[34]

Libby was also actively involved in the Bush administration's efforts to negotiate the Israeli-Palestinian "road map" for peace; for example, he participated in a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in early December 2002 and a meeting with two aides of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in mid-April 2003, culminating in the Red Sea Summit on June 4, 2004.[42][43] Former British Foreign Secretary (2001-2006), current Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said of Libby: "It's a toss-up whether [he] is working for the Israelis or the Americans on any given day."[44] In their highly-controversial and widely-contested "Working Paper" entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", University of Chicago political science professor John J. Mearsheimer and academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Stephen M. Walt argue that Libby was among the Bush administration's most "fervently pro-Israel ... officials" (20).[45]

Further information: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

On June 5, 2007, after Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Libby, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington, D.C. bureau chief Ron Kampeas observed that former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician and writer Natan Sharansky was one of many Jews pleading for leniency for Libby, and that Arye Genger, who served as a liaison between Sharon and the Bush administration, credited Libby with trying to reduce civilian casualties among Israelis and Palestinians during the second intifada.[46]

Resignation from government

On October 28, 2005, after his indictment, Libby resigned as Cheney's chief of staff, as assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, and as assistant to the President.[4]

Subsequent work experience

In January 2006 Libby joined the Hudson Institute as a senior advisor, with a focus on issues relating to Asia and the War on Terrorism.[23]

Wikinews has news related to:

Involvement in the Plame affair

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

Libby and Judith Miller

Main article: Plame affair § Judith Miller

Between 2003 and 2005 intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson and a covert CIA agent, and later tried to hide his having done so.[47] In August 2005, as revealed in grand jury testimony audiotapes played during the trial and reported in many news accounts, Libby testified that he met with Judith Miller, a reporter with the New York Times, on July 8, 2003, and discussed Plame with her.[48]

After refusing to testify to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury about this July 2003 meeting with Libby, Miller was jailed on July 7, 2005 for contempt of court. Although Libby signed a general waiver allowing journalists to discuss their conversations with him, Miller maintained that such a waiver did not serve to allow her to reveal her source; moreover, Miller argued that Libby's general waiver pertaining to all journalists could have been coerced and that she would only testify if given an individual waiver.[49] Months later, her new attorney, Robert Bennett, found out she'd had a written, voluntary waiver from Libby all along.[50]

After Miller had served most of her sentence, Libby reiterated that he had indeed given her a "waiver" both "voluntarily and personally". He attached the following letter, which, when released publicly, became the subject of further speculation about Libby's possible motives in sending it:

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.[51][52][49]

After agreeing to testify, Miller was released on September 29, 2005, appearing before the grand jury the next day, but the charge against her was rescinded only after she testified again on October 12, 2005.[53] For her second grand jury appearance, Miller produced a notebook from a previously-undisclosed meeting with Libby on June 23, 2003, two weeks before Wilson's New York Times op-ed was published.[53] In her account published in the Times on October 16, 2005, based on her notes, Miller reports:

... in an interview with me on June 23 [2003], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Mr. Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the C.I.A. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12 [2003], Mr. Libby, ... [at the time] Mr. Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance. ... My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the C.I.A. ... My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name [i.e., Valerie Plame]. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative" ....[53]

Her notes on her July 8, 2003 meeting with Libby does contain the name "Valerie Flame [sic]," which she added retrospectively. While Miller reveals publicly that she herself had misidentified the last name of Wilson's wife (aka Valerie Plame) in her own marginal notes on their interview as "Flame" instead of "Plame," in her grand jury (and later trial testimony), she remained uncertain when, how, and why she arrived at that name and did not attribute it to Libby:

I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Mr. Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled. ... I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.[53]

A year and a half later, Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice in part for misleading the grand jury about when and how he learned that Plame was a CIA agent.[49][8][54]

Richard Armitage

Main article: Plame affair § Novak's "primary source": Richard Armitage

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 article of July 14, 2003, which named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.[55] CNN reported also that Armitage had been confirmed "by sources" as disclosing Plame's CIA role in a "casual conversation" with Novak.[56][57]

Indictment, trial, conviction, and sentencing

Main article: United States v. Libby

The five counts in the indictment of Libby that Fitzgerald announced on October 28, 2005, include one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts but acquitted him on count three, the second charge of allegidly making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper .[54]

Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI investigators that he first heard of Plame's CIA employment from journalist Tim Russert and that he had forgotten that Cheney had already told him that information.[58] The indictment alleges that those statements to federal investigators and the grand jury 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 with certainty that Plame was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that Plame worked for the CIA without making any disclaimer that he was uncertain of that fact.[59] The false statements counts in the Libby indictment charge that he made these claims to the FBI; the perjury counts charge that he repeated these claims to the grand jury; and the obstruction of justice count charges that Libby made these statements in order to impede the Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation.[3]

After being questioned by the FBI in the fall of 2003 and testifying before a Federal grand jury on March 5 2004, and again on March 24 2004, Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. According to the Associated Press, David Addington, Cheney's legal counsel, described a September 2003 meeting with Libby around the time that a criminal investigation began, saying that Libby had told him, "'I just want to tell you, I didn't do it'... I didn't ask what the 'it' was.'"[60]

Libby retained attorney Ted Wells of the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent him. Wells had successfully defended former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy against a 30-count indictment and had also participated in the successful defense of former Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.[61]

After Judge Reggie Walton denied Libby's motion to dismiss, the press initially reported that Libby would testify at the trial.[62] Libby's criminal trial, United States v. Libby, began on January 16 2007.

Despite earlier press reports and widespread ongoing speculations, neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney testified.[49] The jury began deliberations on February 21, 2007.

Verdict

After deliberating for 10 days, the jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007.[63] It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him: two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators––and acquitted him on one count of making false statements.[64][54]

Comment on the verdict by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner. ... I do not expect to file any further charges".[65][66][67] The trial confirmed that the leak came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and expects to charge no one else, Libby's conviction effectively ended the investigation.[8]

In his October 28 2005 press conference about the grand jury's indictment, Fitzgerald had already explained that Libby's obstruction of justice through perjury and false statements had prevented the grand jury from determining whether the leak violated federal law.[68][69]

During his media appearance outside the courtroom after the verdict in the Libby case, Fitzgerald fielded questions from the press about others involved in the Plame affair and in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, such as Armitage and Cheney, whom he had already described as "under a cloud", as already addressed in his conduct of the case and in his closing arguments in court.[67][68][69][70][71]

Comment on the verdict by Libby's defense team

After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction.[72][65] Libby did not speak to reporters."[8]

Libby's defense team eventually decided against seeking a new trial.[73]

Comment on the verdict by juror Denis Collins

As reported in CNN Newsroom, and subsequently on Larry King Live on CNN and by various other television networks, including MSNBC (on Scarborough Country), one juror — Denis Collins, a journalist and former reporter at The Washington Post — said: 'We're not saying we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of, but it seemed like he was the fall guy. ... tasked by the vice president to go and talk to reporters."[72][74][75][76] Collins offers a day-by-day account of his experience as Juror #9 at the Libby trial in an "Exclusive" at The Huffington Post.[77]

Sentencing

Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, the convictions could have resulted in a sentence ranging from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $1,000,000[72]; yet, as Sniffen and Apuzzo observed, "federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less, perhaps one to three years."[8] In practice, according to federal sentencing data, three-fourths of the 198 defendants found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2006 served jail time. The average length of jail time on this charge alone was 70 months.[78]

On June 5, 2007, Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000.[79][5] According to Apuzzo, Walton also sentenced him to two years probation [i.e., "supervised release"] after his prison sentence expires. There is no parole in the federal system, but Libby would be eligible for supervised release after two years.[79][6]

On June 5, 2007, after the announcement of Libby's sentencing, CNN News reported that Libby still "plans to appeal the verdict."[5]

That day, in response to the sentencing, Cheney issued a statement in Libby's defense on The White House website. The statement concluded: "Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."[80]

Prior to the sentencing, along with Natan Sharansky, as cited earlier, 173 others had sent Walton letters "plead[ing] for leniency" for Libby.[46]

Order to go to jail pending appeal

After the June 5 sentencing, Walton said he was inclined to jail Libby after the defense laid out its proposed appeal, but the judge told attorneys he was open to changing his mind"; however, on June 14, 2007, Walton ordered Libby to report to prison while his attorneys appealed the convictions.[7] Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but Walton denied the request and told Libby that he would have 10 days to appeal the ruling.[7] In denying Libby's request, which had questioned Fitzgerald's authority to make the charges in the first place, Walton supported Fitzgerald's authority in the case. He said: "'Everyone is accountable, and if you work in the White House, and if it's perceived that somehow (you're) linked at the hip, the American public would have serious questions about the fairness of any investigation of a high-level official conducted by the attorney general.'"[7] The judge was also responding to an Amicus curiae brief that he had permitted to be filed, which had not apparently convinced him to change his mind, as he subsequently denied Libby bail during his appeal.[81] Walton indicated he was not inclined to grant bail. [82] Walton granted the scholars permission to file their brief, and wrote of them[:]

It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of this nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it."[82]

At the beginning of the hearing, Walton told the court that he had received 'harassing' and 'hateful' messages[:] 'In the interest of full disclosure, I have received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family," the judge said. 'Those types of things will have no impact. ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful,' Walton said. 'They are being kept.'"[7]

New York Times reporters Neil Lewis and David Stout estimated subsequently that Libby's prison sentence could begin within "two months," explaining that

Judge Walton’s decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby’s supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby? ... So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue. ... If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton’s decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks’ time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report," Judge Walton said.[13]

On June 20, 2007, Libby appealed Walton's ruling in federal appeals court.[14] The next day, Walton filed a 30-page expanded ruling, in which he explained his decision to deny Libby bail in more detail.[83][17]

On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Libby's request for release. [15][16]

Presidential pardon issue

See also: United States v. Libby § Presidential pardon issue

Soon after the verdict, calls for Libby to be pardoned by President George W. Bush began to appear in some newspapers; some of them are posted online by the Libby Legal Defense Trust.[84] U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a press release about the verdict, urging President Bush to pledge not to pardon Libby, and other Democratic politicians followed his lead.[85]

Surveying "the pardon battle" and citing both pro and con publications, The Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin concludes that many U.S. newspapers opposed a presidential pardon for Libby.[86] In an op-ed published in the The Washington Post, former federal prosecutor William Otis argues that the sentence is too stringent and that, instead of pardoning Libby, President Bush should commute his sentence.[87]

After the sentencing, President Bush stated on camera: "... [I] will not intervene until Libby's legal team has exhausted all of its avenues of appeal ... It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss the case until after the legal remedies have run its course."[88]

But, ultimately, less than a month later, Bush chose Otis's "third option"––"neither prison nor pardon"––in commuting Libby's prison sentence.

Presidential commutation of prison sentence

See also: United States v. Libby § Presidential commutation of Libby's sentence
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After Libby was denied bail during his appeal process, on July 2 2007, President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month federal prison sentence, calling it "excessive."[18] The commutation left in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation.[18][19] The commutation of a sentence that had not been served, even in part, appeared unprecedented in recent history; presidential commutations have been traditionally been carried out after a substantial portion of the sentence had been served. A former Justice Department pardon attorney stated that she could not find any precedents for commuting a sentence before it had begun, especially in the last half-century.[78]

Bush explained his "Grant of Executive Clemency" to Libby (in part):

Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.

I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.[19]

Libby's lawyer, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. "issued a brief statement saying Mr. Libby and his family 'wished to express their gratitude for the president’s decision. ... We continue to believe in Mr. Libby’s innocence,' Mr. Wells said."[89]

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, "took issue with Bush's description of the sentence as 'excessive,' saying it was 'imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. ... It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals,' Fitzgerald said. 'That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.'"[90]

The day after the commuting of Libby's sentence, James Rowley (Bloomberg News) reported that President Bush has not ruled out pardoning Libby in the future and that Bush's press spokesman, Tony Snow, denied any political motivation in the commutation. Quoting Snow, Rowley added: "'The president is getting pounded on the right because he didn't do a full pardon.' If Bush were 'doing the weather-vane thing' he 'would have done something differently.'"[91][92]

Nevertheless, Democratic politicians' responses stressed their outrage at what they called a disgraceful abrogation of justice, and, that evening CNN reported that Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D, Michigan) announced that there would be a formal Congressional investigation of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence and other presidential reprieves.[93][94]

In response to President Bush's justifications for clemency, liberal commentator Harlan J. Protass noted that in Rita v. United States,[95] the case of a defendant convicted of perjury in front of a grand jury which had been decided two weeks earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. government had successfully argued that sentences that fall within Federal Sentencing Guidelines are presumed to be "reasonable", regardless of individual circumstances.[96]

Press coverage of the trial

Further information: [[:United States v. Libby#Press coverage of the trial|United States v. Libby § Press coverage of the trial]]

Blogs 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 wrote that the trial was "the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media."[97][98] The trial was followed in the mass media and engaged the interest of both professional legal experts and the general public.[6]

The Wilsons' civil suit

Main article: Valerie Plame § The Wilsons' civil suit

Libby is also named as a party in an on-going civil suit that Joseph and Valerie Wilson have brought against Libby, Cheney, Armitage, and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove[99][100].

Joseph and Valerie Wilson have posted their statement on Libby's sentencing in United States v. Libby on their website.[101]

Reportedly "outraged" by Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence on July 2, 2007, Wilson told CNN: "I have nothing to say to Scooter Libby. ... I don't owe this administration. They owe my wife and my family an apology for having betrayed her. Scooter Libby is a traitor. Bush's action ... demonstrates that the White House is corrupt from top to bottom."[90][92]

Preceded by Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
2001–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs
2001–2005 		Succeeded by

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
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Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Scott Shane, "As Trial Begins, Cheney’s Ex-Aide Is Still a Puzzle", The New York Times, 17 January, 2007, accessed 5 July, 2007. (TimesSelect subscription required).
  2. ^ a b c d e "Biographies of White House Senior Staff: "Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff and Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs", United States Department of State, archived by the Internet Archive (The Wayback Machine), 2005, accessed 5 July, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby", United States Department of Justice, 17 February, 2007, accessed 5 July, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Kelli Arena, Dana Bash, John King, and Kevin Bohn, "Cheney's Top Aide Indicted: CIA Leak Probe Continues", CNN News, 29 October, 2005, accessed 5 July, 2007.
  5. ^ a b c Paul Courson, Brianna Keilar, and Brian Todd, "Libby Sentenced to 30 months in Prison", CNN.com, 5 June, 2007, accessed 5 June, 2007.
  6. ^ a b c See qualification in Jeralyn Merritt, "Scooter Libby: 30 Months in Prison, $250k Fine", TalkLeft (accredited press blog), 5 June, 2007, accessed 5 June, 2007: "Note: CNN, citing the Associated Press erroneously reported that Libby's sentence included 2 years probation. In fact, it was supervised release, which is similar but different from probation, and replaced parole in the federal system in 1987." Cite error: The named reference "Merrittsent" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c d e "Judge Orders Libby Jailed during Appeal", CNN News, June 14 2007, accessed June 14 2007. Cite error: The named reference "CNNJudge" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c d e Michael J. Sniffen and Matt Apuzzo (Associated Press),"Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial: Ex-Cheney Aide Libby Found Guilty of Obstruction, Perjury, Lying to the FBI in CIA Leak Case", ABC News, March 6 2007, accessed June 10 2007.
  9. ^ a b c d "I. Lewis Libby" (Attorney ID No.: 23330)", The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (public search facility), accessed 5 June, 2007.
  10. ^ a b c Find a Member search facility; Lewis Libby is no longer listed as a "member" of the DC Bar, which revised its "Professional Rules of Conduct" on February 1 2007, according to its "Bar News" section, both accessed June 5 2007. On April 3 2007, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals filed an "Order" ("In the Matter of I. Lewis Libby, Jr. ... Bar Registration No. 950758"), suspending Libby "immediately from the practice of law in the District of Columbia pending resolution of this matter [in United States v. Libby]," which the Office of Bar Counsel (DC Bar) received on April 4 2007, directing it to "inform the Court if the matter is resolved without the necessity of further court action." In that order, "the Board directed the Bar Counsel to file a brief addressing whether [Libby's] crimes inherently involve moral turpitude." In its brief, filed on 24 April, 2007, entitled "Statement of Bar Counsel", the DC Bar stated that his crimes did so and recommended to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility that Libby "be disbarred pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)," which reads "in pertinent part": "When a member of the bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, ... the court shall, pending final determination of an appeal from the conviction, suspend the member of the bar from practice.... If a final judgment of conviction is certified to the court, the name of the member of the bar so convicted shall be struck from the roll of the members of the bar and such person shall thereafter cease to be a member." Pursuant to the policy on "Moral Turpitude" contained therein, it is also noted (n. 4) that Libby's "disbarment should be deemed to commence, for reinstatement purposes, on April 11, 2007, the date that [he] filed an affidavit in compliance with D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14(g)." The brief lists Libby's admission to practice law in that jurisdiction as 19 May, 1978. At that time Libby's lawyers filed notification of his intention to appeal his conviction within ten days after his sentencing with the DC Bar.
  11. ^ "Order" ("In the Matter of I. Lewis Libby, Jr. ... Bar Registration No. 950758"), filed April 3, 2007, accessed June 17, 2007.
  12. ^ Emma Schwartz, "Scooter Libby's Law License Loses Its Wheels", Legal Times, 6 April, 2007, accessed 5 July, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Neil A. Lewis and David Stout, "Judge Won't Delay Libby Prison Term", The New York Times, 14 June, 2007, accessed 16 June, 2007.
  14. ^ a b Associated Press, "Libby Appeals Sentencing Ruling", New York Times, 20 June, 2007, accesssed 20 June, 2007.
  15. ^ a b Cary O'Reilly, "Libby, Ex-Cheney Aide, Must Go to Jail During Appeal (Update2)", Bloomberg.com, 2 July, 2007, accessed 2 July, 2007. According to O'Reilly, "The appeals court case is U.S. v. Libby, 07-3068, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Washington)."
  16. ^ a b Cf. Matt Apuzzo (Associated Press), "Court to Libby: Go Directly to Jail", The Globe and Mail, 2 July, 2007, accessed 2 July, 2007. ["The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has not yet assigned Mr. Libby a prison or given him a date to surrender, but last week it designated him as federal inmate No. 28301-016."]
  17. ^ a b See also the updated account in Matt Apuzzo, "Court Won't Delay Libby Prison Sentence", Associated Press, 2 July, 2007, 4:03 p.m. EDT, accessed 2 July, 2007.
  18. ^ a b c Edwin Chen, "Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Term in CIA Leak Case (Update 2)", Bloomberg.com, 2 July, 2007, accessed 2 July, 2007.
  19. ^ a b c d George W. Bush, "Grant of Executive Clemency: A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America", The White House, 2 July, 2007, accessed 2 July, 2007.
  20. ^ a b c Kenneth T. Walsh, "A Rough Road For 'Scooter'? An Inside Player Takes Center Stage", U.S. News & World Report, 31 October, 2005, accessed 23 September, 2006. (2 pages.)
  21. ^ John Dickerson, "Who Is Scooter Libby? The Secretive Cheney Aide at the Heart of the CIA Leak Case", Slate, 21 October, 2005, accessed 28 June, 2007.
  22. ^ a b Nick Bromell, "Scooter Libby and Me", The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa) (Winter 2007) and "Scooter's Tragic Innocence: Why My Friend Scooter Libby Is Loyal to Bush, Cheney and an Arrogant Administration Whose Values Are Not His Own", Salon, 24 January, 2007 (Premium content; restricted access); "Nick Bromell", faculty profile at umass.edu (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts); all accessed 8 June, 2007.
  23. ^ a b Hudson Institute Communications, "Lewis Libby Joins Hudson Institute", official press release, Hudson Institute, 6 January, 2006, accessed 29 June, 2007; see also: Biography for Lewis Libby, Hudson Institute, n.d., accessed 29 June, 2007. [Currently lists only "Senior Advisor"; cf. "I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", Right Web (International Relations Center), last updated 21 March, 2007, accessed 1 July, 2007: "As of mid-March 2007 ... Libby's bio page was no longer available on the [Hudson Institute] website, and his name was not included on the organization's list of scholars."
  24. ^ a b c d e f Stephen Smith, "Libby: Lawyer, Adviser, Author: Cheney's Chief Of Staff Both Political Insider And Acclaimed Novelist", CBS News, 28 October, 2005, accessed 7 March, 2007.
  25. ^ a b c d e f Emma Schwarz, "Leniency Letters Showcase Scooter's 30-Year Legal Career", Legal Times, 11 June 2007, accessed 1 July, 2007.
  26. ^ a b c Eric Schmitt, ""Public Lives: Cheney Aide Will Eat Horse Guts Before He'll Spill Beans", The New York Times, 30 April, 2001, accessed 30 June, 2007. (TimesSelect subscription required.)
  27. ^ a b c Mark Leibovich, "In the Spotlight And on the Spot: Scooter Libby, Backstage No More", Washington Post, 23 October, 2005; appended correction, accessed 26 March, 2007.
  28. ^ a b Mike Pesca, "Guarding the 'I' in I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", NPR October 19, 2005 (NPR audio player clip); accessed June 28, 2007.
  29. ^ Larry King and Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, "Rush Transcript: CNN Larry King Weekend: Interviews with Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Don Rickles, Mike Medavoy", Larry King Live, CNN, aired 16 February, 2002, accessed 27 February, 2007.
  30. ^ a b Daniela Deane, with Mark Leibovich, "Cheney's Right Hand Man Never Sought Limelight", The Washington Post, 28 October, 2005, accessed 30 June, 2007.
  31. ^ Lewis Libby, The Apprentice (1996; New York: St. Martin's Press [Griffin], 2005), ISBN 0312284535 (10), ISBN 978-0312284534 (13).
  32. ^ a b Associated Press, "Publisher to Reissue I. Lewis Libby's Novel", USA Today, 9 November, 2005, accessed 3 July, 2007.
  33. ^ Julian Borger, "Indicted Libby's Publishers Plan 25,000 Reprint of 'steamy' Novel", The Guardian, 11 November, 2005, accessed 23 February, 2007.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i Richard S. Curtiss, "Neocon Corner: I. Lewis ('Scooter') Libby: The Nexus of Washington’s Neocon Network", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 2004: 18-20, accessed 4 March, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "wrmea" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  35. ^ For information about the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, see its website at Schnader, n.d., accessed 30 June, 2007.
  36. ^ CNN, "GOP Lawyer: Facts 'misconstrued' in Rich Case", CNN (Archives), 2 March, 2001, accessed 16 February, 2007.
  37. ^ Elliott Abrams, et al., "Statement of Principles", June 3, 1997, newamericancentury.org, accessed May 28, 2007.
  38. ^ a b MSNBC News Services "Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, a Quiet Force: Vice President's Former Top Aide is Called 'Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney'", MSNBC, updated 28 October, 2005, accessed 17 February, 2007.
  39. ^ Thomas Donnelly (Principal Author), et al. (Project for the New American Century), Template:PDFlink, September 2000, accessed 5 June, 2007. (Project Co-Chairmen: Donald Kagan and Gary Schmitt; full list of "Project Participants", inc. "I. Lewis Libby Dechert Price & Rhoads", appears on page 90, followed by this note: "The above list of individuals participated in at least one project meeting or contributed a paper for discussion. The report is a product solely of the Project for the New American Century and does not necessarily represent the views of the project participants or their affiliated institutions.")
  40. ^ Karen Kwiatkowski, "The New Pentagon Papers: A High-ranking Military Officer Reveals How Defense Department Extremists Suppressed Information and Twisted the Truth to Drive the Country to War"], Slate, 10 March, 2007, accessed 19 April, 2007.
  41. ^ Jeremy Scahill, "Germ Boys and Yes Men", online posting, The Nation, 9 November, 2005 (28 November 2005 issue): 2, accessed 3 March, 2007 (3 pages).
  42. ^ Matthew E. Berger, "As White House Menorah Is Lit, Bush Speaks of His Resolve Against Terror", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 2, 2002, accessed March 24, 2007: "some Jewish leaders also met Wednesday [November 30, 2002] with Bush administration officials, including the deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, and Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. ... The message from those meetings, attendees said, was that the United States will not deviate from Bush's June 24 speech, in which he called for new Palestinian leadership and, possibly, a Palestinian state within three years...."
  43. ^ Steven R. Weisman, "White House Is Pressing Israelis To Take Initiatives in Peace Talks", The New York Times 17 April, 2003, accessed 24 March, 2007 (TimesSelect subscription required): "It was considered significant that the White House meeting with Mr. Sharon's aides on Tuesday [April 15, 2003] was attended on the American side not only by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, but by others in the administration whom Israel considers more sympathetic. ... These other officials included Elliott Abrams, the top White House adviser on the Middle East, as well as I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Douglas J. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy."
  44. ^ Qtd. by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "A State Like No Other: Israel, Once Seen As a Refuge, Has Become One of the Few Places Where Jews Are Attacked Simply for Being Jews", ("Geoffrey Wheatcroft on the troubled history of a homeland."), The New Statesman, 25 April, 2005, accessed June 30, 2007; a book review of Jacob's Gift: A Journey into the Heart of Belonging, by Jonathan Freedland (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2005), ISBN 0241142431; The Question of Zion, by Jacqueline Rose (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2005); and The Return of Anti-Semitism, by Gabriel Schoenfeld (London: Politico's, 2005); Wheatcroft quotes Straw:

    ....neoconservatism is an episode, an important and interesting one, in the intellectual and political history of Jewish America, and it is impudent to call anyone who mentions this a bigot. Schoenfeld suggests that only racist crackpots ever query the commitment of senior Washington officials, but it was Jack Straw, himself a descendant of Jewish immigrants, who said of Lewis Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff: "It's a toss-up whether Libby is working for the Israelis or the Americans on any given day."

    Wheatcroft's book The Controversy of Zion: Jewish Nationalism, the Jewish State, and the Unresolved Jewish Dilemma (London: Perseus Books, 1996), ISBN 0201562340 (10); ISBN 978-0201562347 (13), won a National Jewish Book Award (US); the former editor of The Spectator (UK), he is also the author of The Strange Death of Tory England (London: Allen Lane, 2005); ISBN 0713998016 (10); ISBN 978-0713998016 (13). That remark by Straw is quoted by New Statesman editor John Kampfner in his book Blair's Wars (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003; London: Free Press, 2004); ISBN 0743248295 (10); ISBN 978-0743248297 (13); cf. Charles Grant, "Prospect: Blair's Five Wars", Centre for European Reform (UK), October 2003, accessed 30 June, 2007 (6 pages):

    Kampfner's book contains some wonderful vignettes. He describes how badly the Blair camp gets on with Vice-President Dick Cheney and his office, and particularly with Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, who is close to Israel's Likud party. In 2002, while Colin Powell was having a difficult trip in the middle east, he complained to Jack Straw that Ariel Sharon always seemed to have advance notice of the US position. Kampfner reports that Straw later remarked, "It is a toss up whether Libby is working for the Israelis or the Americans on any given day."
  45. ^ John J. Mearsheimer (Department of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Stephen M. Walt (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University), "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", online posting, Harvard University, March 2006 (RWP06‐011), accessed 1 July, 2007. (Document features institutional disclaimer and notes that "An edited and reworked version of this paper" was published in London Review of Books, 28.6 (23 March, 2006), "available online at www.lrb.co.uk." The LRB version entitled "The Israel Lobby" contains the same passage qtd. above in this text; it is rpt. as part of the LRB feature article entitled "The Israel Lobby Debate", incorporating a video link to "Israel lobby: does it have too much influence on American foreign policy?"; "The panellists [sic] were Shlomo Ben-Ami, Martin Indyk, Tony Judt, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer and Dennis Ross, and the moderator was Anne-Marie Slaughter." Also accessed 1 July, 2007.)
  46. ^ a b Ron Kampeas, "Sharansky Leads Jews Pleading Leniency for Libby -- Without Success", Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), 5 June, 2007, accessed, 15 June, 2007; rpt. in Ron Kampeas (JTA), "Sharansky and 173 Others Plead Leniency for Libby", The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, 8 June, 2007, accessed 15 June, 2007. All 174 sentencing letters have been released to the public; these letters have been posted and/or referred to in various online news sites and in the compiled indices of Libby-related news articles hosted by major mass media sites such as CNN News and The New York Times. A central source of all the letters cited by Kampeas is the "Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy Project" Libby sentencing letters (PDF), Secrecy News (online newsletter of the Federation of American Scientists), n.d., accessed 15 June, 2007. They are presented alphabetically, according to the last name of the writer(s). Cite error: The named reference "Kampeas173" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  47. ^ Farhad Manjoo, "War Room: Did Scooter Libby Try to Hide His Meeting with Judith Miller?", Salon, 11 October, 2005, accessed 28 June, 2007.
  48. ^ "Libby's Complete Grand Jury Testimony", transcript and NPR audio player clips, National Public Radio, 9 February, 2007, accessed 29 June, 2007.
  49. ^ a b c d For transcripts of the trial testimony, including that by Judith Miller, "edited & with reporting by Murray Waas,", see Murray Waas, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco, The United States v. I. Lewis Libby (New York: Union Square Press (imprint of Sterling Publishing), 2007); ISBN 1402752598 (10); ISBN 978-1402752599 (13).
  50. ^ Margaret Carlson, "Time's Pearlstine Looks Back at Plamegate, Blames Floyd Abrams", Bloomberg.com, last updated June 27 2007, accessed June 29 2007.
  51. ^ Lewis Libby, Template:PDFlink The New York Times, 15 September, 2005), accessed 17 February, 2007.
  52. ^ Murray Waas, "Libby Did Not Tell Grand Jury about Key Conversation", The National Journal, 11 November, 2005, accessed 29 June, 2007.
  53. ^ a b c d Judith Miller, "A Personal Account: My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room", New York Times, 16 October, 2005, accessed 29 June, 2007 (TimesSelect subscription required).
  54. ^ a b c "The Counts", Multimedia graphic in Times Topics: I. Lewis Libby Jr.,The New York Times, 5 March, 2007, accessed 29 June, 2007.
  55. ^ Neil A. Lewis, "First Source of C.I.A. Leak Admits Role, Lawyer Says", New York Times, 30 August, 2006, National Desk, Late Ed–Final: A12, col. 5 (TimesSelect subscription required).
  56. ^ John King and Brian Todd, "Sources: State Department Official Source of Plame Leak", CNN 30 August, 2006.
  57. ^ David Corn, "Will Scooter Libby Graymail the CIA?" The Nation, 6 February, 2006, accessed 18 April, 2007.
  58. ^ Clarice Feldman, "Libby's Defense Goes After Antique Media Reporters", The American Thinker, 30 January, 2006, as confirmed by the playing of Libby's taped grand jury testimony in court on 7 February, 2007.
  59. ^ "Russert on Politics: GOP Has Serious National Security Fissure: Dems Can Stand On Sidelines, Watch Republicans Fight", interview with Tim Russert, MSNBC, [date of publication?], accessed January 23 2007.
  60. ^ 'Scooter' Libby Reportedly Said 'I didn't do it'", Associated Press, January 30 2007, accessed February 15 2007.
  61. ^ Viveca Novak,"Was This a Bad Idea? A Verdict Clearing Espy Is the Latest Sign That the Independent-Counsel Statute Is Likely to Perish", CNN News, December 17 1998, accessed July 3 2007.
  62. ^ Jeralyn Merritt, "Libby to Testify at His Trial", TalkLeft (accredited press blog), September 23 2006, accessed January 24 2007.
  63. ^ Jeralyn Merritt, "Verdict in the Libby Trial", transcript, The Washington Post ("Live Online" discussion), 6 March, 2007, 2:00–3:00 p.m., ET.
  64. ^ David Stout and Neil Lewis, "Libby Guilty of Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case", The New York Times, 6 March, 2007, accessed 6 March, 2007.
  65. ^ a b "Libby Lawyer Demands New Trial After Conviction", CNN Newsroom, 6 March, 2007, accessed 6 march, 2007.
  66. ^ "Jurors Convict Libby on Four of Five Charges: Cheney’s Ex-aide Faces Jail Time in CIA Leak Case; Sentencing Set for June", MSNBC, 6 March, 2007, updated 9:18 p.m., ET, accessed 7 March, 2007.
  67. ^ a b CNN video clip of Fitzgerald's remarks, March 6 2007, accessed June 8 2007. (Access limited to one viewing per day.)
  68. ^ a b "Libby's Guilty Verdict: Media Myths and Falsehoods to Watch for", Media Matters for America, March 6 2007, accessed June 8 2007.
  69. ^ a b Transcript of Special Counsel Fitzgerald's press conference, The Washington Post, October 28 2005, accessed June 8 2007.
  70. ^ Transcript and video clips presented on Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC, March 6 2007, 7:00–8:00 p.m., ET; repeated on March 7 2007, 3:00–4:00 a.m., ET.
  71. ^ Jeralyn Merritt, "Fitz Closing in Libby; Cheney Is Under a Cloud" TalkLeft (accredited press blog), February 24 2007, accessed June 8 2007, observes that "Fitzgerald squarely blames Libby for putting the cloud on the Vice President," quoting from Fitzgerald's closing arguments, e.g.:

    There is a cloud over the vice president. He sent Libby off to [meet with former New York Times reporter] Judith Miller at the St. Regis Hotel. At that meeting, the two hour meeting, the defendant [Libby] talked about the wife [Plame]. We didn't put that cloud there. That cloud remains because the defendant obstructed justice and lied about what happened. ... He's put the doubt into whatever happened that week, whatever is going on between the Vice President and the defendant, that cloud was there. That's not something that we put there. That cloud is something that we just can't pretend isn't there.

  72. ^ a b c "Libby Found Guilty of Perjury, Obstruction", CNN Newsroom, 6 March, 2007, accessed 6 March, 2007.
  73. ^ Ambassador Mel Sembler, Chairman, Libby Defense Trust, and the Advisory Committee, "Message from the Chairman", Libby Defense Trust, scooterlibby.com, 1 June, 2007, accessed 5 June, 2007.
  74. ^ "Juror: Libby Is Guilty, But He Was Fall Guy", CNN Newsroom, March 6 2007, accessed March 6 2007.
  75. ^ Cf. Larry King Live and Scarborough Country, first aired 9:00–10:00 p.m., ET, accessed live; repeated at 12:00–1:00 a.m., ET.
  76. ^ Joe Strupp, "New Revelations from Former 'Wash Post' Reporter/Libby Juror", Editor & Publisher, March 6 2007, 5:05 p.m., ET, accessed March 6 2007; updated version accessed March 24 2007. [Updated title; formerly entitled "Former Colleagues at 'Wash Post' Discuss (Now Famous) Libby Juror".]
  77. ^ Denis Collins, "Inside the Jury Room: Huffington Post Exclusive: What the Jury Thought, Day by Day, Witness by Witness, at the Scooter Libby Trial", The Huffington Post, March 7 2007, Latest News, accessed March 7 2007.
  78. ^ a b Richard B. Schmitt and David G. Savage, "Libby sentence met guidelines", The Baltimore Sun, 4 July 2007, accessed 5 July, 2007.
  79. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Apuzzosent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  80. ^ "Vice President Statement on Libby Sentencing", whitehouse.gov, June 5, 2007, accessed June 6, 2007.
  81. ^ Cf. "Motion for Leave to File Brief As Amici Curiae and Brief of Law Professors Vikram Amar, Randy E. Barnett, Robert H. Bork, Alan M. Dershowitz, Viet D. Dinh, Douglas W. Kmiec, Gary S. Lawson, Earl M. Maltz, Thomas W. Merrill, Robert F. Nagel, Richard D. Parker, and Robert J. Pushaw As Amici Curiae in Connection with Defendant's Motion for Bail Pending Appeal", filed June 8 2007, online posting, Scooter Libby Defense Trust, June 7 2007, accessed June 15 2007.
  82. ^ a b Cf. Josh Gerstein, "National: Professors Back Libby on Appeal: Group Includes Dershowitz, Bork", The New York Sun, June 8 2007, updated June 9 2007, accessed June 15 2007.
  83. ^ Josh Gerstein, "Libby Judge Files Expanded Opinion: Details Decision Not Allowing Libby to Remain Free", New York Sun, June 22, 2007, accessed June 22, 2007.
  84. ^ Libby Legal Defense Trust: In the News; the Libby Legal Defense Trust also features a "Message from the Chairman", former Ambassador Mel Sembler, and the Advisory Committee, 1 June, 2007, accessed 7 March, 2007.
  85. ^ Harry Reid, press release, democrats.senate.gov 6 March, 2007, accessed 5 April, 2007; cf. news account in "Democrats to Bush: Don't Pardon Libby", CNN News 7 March, 2007, accessed 5 April, 2007.
  86. ^ Dan Froomkin, "Many Newspapers Oppose Pardon", White House Watch (column and blog), washingtonpost.com, June 7 2007, accessed June 7 2007.
  87. ^ William Otis, "Neither Prison Nor Pardon: Justice in the Libby Case Lies With Bush's Third Option", The Washington Post, June 7 2007: A-27; online posting, washingtonpost.com, June 7 2007, accessed June 7 2007.
  88. ^ Jim Rutenberg, "Bush in Dilemma on Libby Pardon", International Herald Tribune, June 7 2007, accessed June 7 2007.
  89. ^ Scott Shane and Neil Lewis, "Bush Spares Libby from 30-Month Prison Term", The New York Times, 3 July, 2007, accessed 3 July, 2007.
  90. ^ a b Qtd. by CNN, "Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Sentence", us.cnn.com, 2 July, 2007 (updated periodically), accessed 3 July, 2007.
  91. ^ James Rowley, "Bush Won't Rule Out Pardon for Libby as Aide Defends Clemency", Bloomberg.com 3 July, 2007, accessed 3 July, 2007.
  92. ^ a b For his full published statement in response to the commutation and the press conference about it by Bush's press spokesman Tony Snow, see Joseph C. Wilson, "Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson's Response to Bush Spokesman Tony Snow's Comments at Today's White House Briefing", online posting, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), 3 July, 2007, accessed 4 July, 2007. (Statement in Response to President Bush's Commutation of Lewis Libby's Sentence).
  93. '^ Anderson Cooper, "Breaking News", Anderson Cooper 360°, broadcast on CNN, 3 July, 2007, 10 p.m.-12 a.m. EDT, accessed July 3 2007; cf. "Political Bulletin: Bush Bashed Over Libby Commutation: Furious Democrats Will Hold Hearings", US News and World Reports, July 3 2007, accessed July 3 2007.
  94. ^ See also "President Commutes Libby's Sentence", Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, July 3 2007, accessed July 4 2007.
  95. ^ Rita v. United States, online posting in Supreme Court Collection, Legal Resource Institute, Cornell University Law School, law.cornell.edu, accessed July 4 2007.
  96. ^ Harlan J. Protass, "The Quality of Mercy Is Strained: Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence, While His Lawyers Come Down Hard On Everyone Else", Slate, July 3 2007, accessed July 4 2007.
  97. ^ Scott Shane, "For Brigade of Liberal Bloggers, the Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder", The New York Times, February 15 2007; updated with appended correction, 17 February, 2007, accessed March 24 2007 (TimesSelect subscription required).
  98. ^ The Scooter Libby Trial, Media Bloggers Association, February 20 2007–June 28 2007 (updated periodically), accessed June 30 2007.
  99. ^ Associated Press, "Armitage Added To Plame Lawsuit: Ex-State Department Official Joins Cheney, Libby, Rove As Target In Suit", CBS News, 13 September, 2006, accessed 7 March, 2007.
  100. ^ Joseph C. Wilson, "Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby" (now outdated URL), press release, originally posted online by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) 6 March, 2007, accessed 6 March, 2007; updated posting as "CREW Statement on Libby Conviction: No Man Is Above the Law.", Citizens ^Blogging for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (blog), 6 March, 2007, accessed 18 April, 2007; also posted as "Wilsons' Attorney Statement in Response to Jury's Verdict in U.S. v. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, 6 March, 2007, accessed 18 April, 2007.
  101. ^ Joseph and Valerie Wilson, "Statement from Joseph Wilson on Libby Sentencing", Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust, June 5, 2007, News, accessed June 6, 2007.

Further reading


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