Irve Lewis Libby Jr.
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 in New Haven, Connecticut; his father was an investment banker.[1] Various sources report that he has been rather secretive about his actual first name, and that the initial "I." stands for Irving.[2][3] 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".[4]
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 [5] 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. [6]
Conviction and Sentence
Libby was convicted on four counts including: Obstruction of Justice (intentionally deceiving the grand jury about how he learned, and “disclosed to the media,” information about Valerie Plame Wilson’s employment by the CIA, Making a False Statement (intentionally giving the FBI false information about a conversation he had with Tim Russert), Perjury (knowingly providing false testimony about a conversation he had with Russert and knowingly providing false testimony about his conversation with reporters regarding Valerie Plame Wilson’s CIA employment). He was founf Not Guilty on an additional charge, that he gave false statements to the FBI about his conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.[7]
Althought the U.S. Probation Office recommended a sentence of 15-21 months, on June 5th, 2007, Jugde Reggie B. Walton sentences Libby to thirty months in jail and a fine of $250,000.[8]
Libby and Presidential Clemency Almost from the beginning of his trial the President was encouraged to pardon Libby. Among those calling for pardon were William F. Buckley, Jr, Fred Thompson, Cal Thomas, Ann Coulter, Jack Kemp and Tom Delay.[9] But the trial continued and sentence was announced without presidential intereference.
References
- ↑ "A Rough Road For 'Scooter'?", Kenneth T. Walsh
- ↑ "Guarding the 'I' in I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby", Mike Pesca, National Public Radio, October 19, 2005.
- ↑ "In the Spotlight And on the Spot: Scooter Libby, Backstage No More", Mark Leibovich, Washington Post, 23 October, 2005.
- ↑ "Libby: Lawyer, Adviser, Author: Cheney's Chief Of Staff Both Political Insider And Acclaimed Novelist", Stephen Smith, CBS News, 28 October, 2005
- ↑ Plame called on to explain varied accounts, By Richard Willing, USA TODAY, May 29, 2007.
- ↑ NPR
- ↑ MSNBC
- ↑ Yahoo News
- ↑ http://libbypardon.net/procon.htm
External Links
- Libby Trial Documents
- Libby Legal Defense Fund
- Pardon for Libby? Blog
- Robert Novak on the Libby Trial
- Libby Letters -- letters from Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Mary Matalin, James Carville, Peter Pace, Richard Perle, James Woolsey, Douglas Feith, Christopher Cox, Leon Wieseltier, Leonard Garment, Alan Simpson, Natan Sharansky, Richard Myers, and Anthony Fauci, petition the Judge for leniency. [1]