Scooter Libby Found Guilty on 4 of 5 Counts
9:31 AM PST, March 6, 2007
LA Times
WASHINGTON — Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted today on four counts of obstruction of justice and perjury.
Libby was found guilty of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and one count of making false statements to the FBI. But he was acquitted on one count of making false statements to the FBI concerning his conversations with former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.
Libby is out on bail, pending appeal. As the verdict was read, Libby’s wife and one of the jurors started sobbing. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for the obstruction count and up to five years each for the other counts, but under federal sentencing guidelines he is expected to get much less. In addition, Libby could be fined up to $250,000 on each guilty count.
The trial, the first of a senior White House official in more than a decade, attracted considerable attention. Its backdrop — the decision to go to war in Iraq — is one of the defining issues of the Bush presidency. And the case highlighted the cozy interactions between high-ranking officials and big-name journalists, who paraded into court to expose the sometimes sloppy way that information is traded in the nation’s capital.
When syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed in 2003 that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, was a CIA operative, it triggered a three-year federal probe into who leaked the classified information.
Although Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage later acknowledged that he first leaked the information, Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald charged Libby with perjury. The decision to prosecute Libby, the only person charged in the case, was controversial from the beginning.
The Pandora’s box that opened the controversy began with a single sentence in President Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union address, in which he sought to build the case that Saddam Hussein was a threat to U.S. security by alleging that the Iraqi dictator, among other actions, had recently sought nuclear material in Africa.
The statement aroused Wilson, who had once been U.S. envoy to Baghdad. Only the year before, in February 2002, Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Africa to assess the claim about Iraq and found it baseless.
Wilson began speaking to reporters and ultimately went public, accusing the administration in a New York Times op-ed article on July 6, 2003 of twisting the prewar intelligence and misleading the American people. The prosecution argued that the article infuriated Vice President Dick Cheney, who launched a campaign to discredit Wilson.
Eight days later, Novak disclosed that Wilson’s wife was a CIA operative, suggesting that she had arranged for the agency to select Wilson for the fact-finding mission to Africa knowing about his antiwar perspective.
[Excerpted]
Read the rest of the story here.
In a statement to the press, Libby’s Counsel stated that a motion for a new trial would be filed and if denied, an appeal of verdict would be filed.
Given the nine days of deliberation and the apparent confusion of the jury, I can see a successful motion for new trial… if President Bush doesn’t pardon him first!
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Posted by loboinok on March 6, 2007 11:59 am
» Filed Under News
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- bRight & Early: Libby Verdict Roundup
- Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator: Juror: Libby Was "The Fall Guy"
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2 Responses to “Scooter Libby Found Guilty on 4 of 5 Counts”
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Well does anyone trust the American justice system anymore? Wilson lied and lied, and lied and Libby gets jail time? Sandy Berger steals classifed documents, lies, and walks?
Where can I get the my barbarian costume. Rome is falling.
Libby is a lying traitor and I hope this entire administration is held accountable for their despicable lies!!!!!!!!
Let them FRY!!!