Politics

Bush nixes jail for Libby

The president commutes the sentence for Cheney aide in the CIA leak case.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush spared I. "Scooter" Lewis Libby from prison Monday, commuting the 21/2 year sentence given to Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide while leaving intact his conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case.

Bush's action, announced hours after a panel of judges ruled that Libby could not put off serving his sentence while he appealed his conviction, came as a surprise to all but a few members of the president's inner circle and reignited the passions that have surrounded the case from the beginning.

The commutation brought praise from conservatives, who hailed it as a courageous step to avert a miscarriage of justice, and condemnation from Democrats, who said it showed a lack of accountability and respect for the law.

The president portrayed his commutation of the sentence, which fell short of a pardon and still requires Libby to pay a fine and be on probation, as a carefully considered compromise.

"I respect the jury's verdict, " Bush said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Libby is excessive."

Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff, will still have to pay a $250, 000 fine and remain on probation for two years.

The president's decision means that Libby, 56, no longer faces the prospect of leaving his wife and two children, in what probably would have been a matter of weeks, to report to prison.

His last hope of postponing incarceration dissolved earlier Monday after a panel of judges ruled that he could not put off serving his sentence while he pursued an appeal. He had been assigned a prisoner number.

It was the first time Bush has used his constitutional power to grant clemency in a high-profile case with political overtones. Mindful of the controversy that greeted pardons issued by some of his predecessors, including Gerald R. Ford, Bill Clinton and his own father, Bush has until now limited his use of the power to routine cases and had not publicly discussed his intentions in the Libby case.

But the action drew a sharp response from Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the case, who criticized the president's characterization of the sentence as "excessive."

"In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws, " Fitzgerald said in a statement. "It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals."

A lawyer for Libby, Theodore Wells Jr., issued a brief statement saying Libby and his family "wished to express their gratitude for the president's decision."

"We continue to believe in Mr. Libby's innocence, " Wells said.

Bush's decision drew warm support from Libby's friends and supporters, who had created a defense fund that drew the support of dozens of prominent Republicans, including a half dozen former ambassadors and several former government colleagues. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, an undeclared candidate for president, held a fundraiser for Libby.

"This is not a man who deserves to go to jail in any sense of the word, " said Kenneth Adelman, a former Defense Department official and longtime friend of Libby.

"Whatever he did wrong, he certainly paid, " Adelman said, referring to Libby's resignation from his prominent position and his public humiliation. "This is a good person who served his country very well and is a decent person."

Congressional Democrats issues statements lambasting Bush's move. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, called the commutation "disgraceful."

"Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war, " Reid said. "Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."

In March, a jury convicted Libby of lying to FBI agents and a grand jury investigating the leak in 2003 of the secret CIA employment of Valerie Plame. She is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify war with Iraq.

The criminal case polarized public opinion almost as bitterly as the war itself. Conservative backers of Bush contended that because no one was charged with leaking Plame's identity, the investigation should have been dropped altogether. Liberal opponents of the war saw the charges as a measure of justice for an administration official they blamed for exaggerating the threat from Saddam Hussein and pushing the country into war.

In a brief interview Monday, Wilson, who recently moved with his wife to New Mexico, said the commutation "should demonstrate to the American people how corrupt this administration is." He suggested that its goal was to prevent Libby from telling all he knew about White House actions, particularly in the planning for war.

Valerie Plame declined to comment.

In pursuing criminal charges, Fitzgerald said Libby had subverted the justice system by lying to investigators. In urging a strong sentence in May, he called Libby "a high-ranking government official whose falsehoods were central to issues in a significant criminal investigation."

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 07:03:27]