In CIA leak trial, Libby found guilty
Jurors Tuesday convicted Cheney's onetime chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice.
from the March 7, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The Plame investigation sprang from a 16-word sentence in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he stated that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from Africa. In July 2003, Ambassador Wilson wrote a column stating that he had found no evidence of such Iraqi attempts and accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq.
According to the argument laid out against Libby by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Cheney's office – and Libby in particular – swung into action to discredit Wilson. Libby's defense team argued that the senior aide did not deliberately make false statements under oath, but rather was a very busy man who could not be expected to remember everything he had said and to whom and when.
After the trial, jurors speaking for the cameras made clear that they believed the Wilson matter and his harsh criticism of the Iraq war were a central concern in Cheney's office and that Libby's claims of memory problems were not credible. Still, one juror said he and his fellow jurors agreed with the defense argument that Libby had been hung out to dry by Mr. Rove and other more senior officials.
"It seemed like ... he was the fall guy," juror Denis Collins said in an ad hoc press conference after the verdict. But, he added, that point did not negate Libby's actions.
Libby's criminal conviction represents a rare moment in American history, the conviction of someone for actions taken during their time as a White House official. Over the years, top administration officials have been indicted, and most of them acquitted, but the last time a White House official was found guilty was during the Iran-contra scandal of the Reagan administration.
"This is just another blow to the Bush administration," says Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "If it were alone, it wouldn't amount to that much. But it comes with circumstances in Iraq, and the Walter Reed [scandal on treatment of Iraq and Afghan war veterans] feeding into the Katrina sense of an administration not caring."
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