|
Bush's move came Monday, just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term. His prospects for an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court seemed bleak. The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby was just waiting for a date to surrender.
After months of sidestepping pardon questions, Bush stepped in. He did not issue a pardon but erased a prison sentence that he felt was just too harsh.
"I respect the jury's verdict," Bush said in a written statement. "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 30 months in prison."
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disputed the president's assertion that the prison term was excessive. Libby was sentenced under the same laws as other criminals, Fitzgerald said. "It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals."
Libby's attorney, Theodore Wells, said in a statement that the Libby family was grateful for Bush's action and continued to believe in his innocence.
Because he was not pardoned, Libby remains the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a crime since the Iran-Contra affair. But he won't have to serve a day in prison, a fact that his friends cheered, even those who wished he'd received a full pardon.
"That's fantastic. It's a great relief," said former Ambassador Richard Carlson, who helped raise millions for Libby's defense fund. "Scooter Libby did not deserve to go to prison and I'm glad the president had the courage to do this."
Though the leak investigation is complete and nobody will have to serve prison time, the scandal that has loomed over the Bush administration for years did not subside. Democrats were enraged.
"Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's decision showed the president "condones criminal conduct."
The president left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for his conviction of lying and obstructing justice in a probe into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. The former operative, Valerie Plame, contends the White House was trying to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy.
Congress ought to investigate "whether or not the president himself is a participant in the obstruction of justice," Wilson told The Santa Fe New Mexican. Wilson, Plame and their children moved to Santa Fe earlier this year.
[to top of second column]
 |
 "The president has utterly subverted the rule of law and the
system of justice that has undergirded this country of ours for the
past 220 years," Wilson said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.
Bush said his action still "leaves in place a harsh punishment
for Mr. Libby."
The leak case has hung over the White House for years. Special
Prosecutor Fitzgerald questioned top administration officials,
including Bush and Cheney, about their possible roles. And Libby's
trial revealed the extraordinary steps that Bush and Cheney were
willing to take to discredit a critic of the Iraq war.
Nobody was ever charged with the leak, including Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage or White House political adviser Karl
Rove, who provided the information for the original article.
Prosecutors said Libby obstructed the investigation by lying about
how he learned about Plame and whom he told.
Already at record lows in the polls, Bush risked a political
backlash with his decision. President Ford tumbled in the polls
after his 1974 pardon of Richard M. Nixon, and the decision was a
factor in Ford's loss in the 1976 election.
Bush's father -- former President George H.W. Bush -- issued
pardons shortly before leaving office in 1992 for former Defense
Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and five other former officials who
had served in the Reagan administration. The six were involved in
the Iran-Contra affair, in which arms were secretly sold to Iran to
win the freedom of American hostages, then the money was funneled to
anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua despite a congressional ban
on military aid.
On Monday, White House officials said Bush knew he could take
political heat for commuting Libby's prison sentence and simply did
what he thought was right. They would not say what advice Cheney
might have given the president.
Bush said Cheney's former aide was not getting off free.
"The reputation he gained through his years of public service and
professional work in the legal community is forever damaged," Bush
said. "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."
Attorney William Jeffress said he had spoken to Libby briefly by
phone and "I'm happy at least that Scooter will be spared any prison
time. The prison sentence was imminent but obviously the conviction
itself is a heavy blow to Scooter."
[Associated Press;
by Matt Apuzzo]
Associated Press writer Ben Feller contributed to this report. |
