Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. is a former deputy Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff, National Security Advisor and private Attorney to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby was born to a Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut; his father was an investment banker. Various sources report that he has been rather secretive about his actual first name, and that the initial "I." stands for Irving. According to interviews, he first acquired his nickname "Scooter" as an infant, when his father, after seeing him move quickly across his crib, described him as "a scooter".

On October 28, 2005, Libby was indicted on five felony counts (1*Obstruction of Justice, 2*Making False Statements, 2*Perjury) due to his involvement in the Valerie Plame affair. On March 6, 2007, Libby was found guilty of the felony offense of lying to a grand jury. He had testified that he first learned about Joe Wilson's wife from VP Dick Cheney, and that when Tim Russert mentioned her in a phone call a month or so later, Libby told Russert that he had forgotten about her. Russert testified that no one mentioned Wilson's wife on that phone call.

On October 28, 2005, after his indictment by Fitzgerald's grand jury, he resigned as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, as assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, and as assistant to President Bush. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4979769

Jurors convict Libby on four of five charges Libby is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. The case brought new attention to the Bush administration's much-criticized handling of weapons of mass destruction intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Guilty Count 1 - Obstruction of Justice: Libby intentionally deceived the grand jury about how he learned, and “disclosed to the media,” information about Valerie Plame Wilson’s employment by the CIA. Guilty Count 2 - Making a False Statement: Libby intentionally gave FBI agents false information about a conversation he had with NBC’s Tim Russert regarding Valerie Plame Wilson, who is married to Joseph Wilson. Not Guilty Count 3 - a charge that he gave false statements to the FBI about his conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Guilty Count 4 - Perjury: Libby knowingly provided false testimony in court about a conversation he had with Russert. Guilty Count 5 - Perjury: Libby knowingly provided false testimony in court about his conversation with reporters regarding Valerie Plame Wilson’s CIA employment. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17479718/

Shame on the Washington Post, Again... False Claims ... that Plame was not a covert CIA officer involved with sensitive counter-proliferation operations – and that therefore no real crime was committed when the Bush administration leaked her identity. ... Toensing leaves out, however, that it has been Libby’s defense lawyers who have fought to exclude evidence of Plame’s covert CIA status because they regard the fact as likely to prejudice the jury against their client. http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/021907Parry-too.shtml

Legal observers puzzled by 'Scooter' Libby's version of events Most legal experts were not surprised Tuesday when jurors convicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on four of five counts of lying to federal investigators. ... At trial, Libby's claim was contradicted by nine witnesses, including government officials, who said he had talked to them about Plame weeks earlier. ... From the outset, as legal experts saw it, the case against Libby was simple and straightforward — and hard to defend against. ... Since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, one of Washington's favored cliches has been that it's not the crime but the cover-up that gets officials into trouble. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess7mar07,1,2839083.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

External Links

Libby Trial Documents Libby Legal Defense Fund Pardon for Libby? Blog Robert Novak on the Libby Trial