Former Vice President Dick Cheney thanked President Trump for pardoning his former chief of staff Scooter Libby for “phony” charges related to the leaking the identity of a CIA official.
“He was a totally innocent man, and I want to thank the president for having done that,” Cheney said of Trump’s decision in April to pardon Libby. “It was a good move, and lot of us who are familiar with the case who know and love Scooter Libby really appreciate the fact that he’s been deemed innocent, and that’s what should have happened. It was all a phony deal from the very beginning.”
Libby was Cheney’s chief of staff at the White House, and was charged with obstruction of justice in the investigation of who leaked the identify of CIA official Valerie Plame. Libby at the time rejected the obstruction of justice charges by saying he recalled events differently, but he was charged nonetheless.
Cheney said at one point that the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General James Comey, said all charges would be dropped against Libby if he testified against Cheney.
“Ultimately, [they] went to Scooter’s attorneys and told them that if Scooter would testify against me, they’d drop all charges against Scooter,” he said. “It was that bad of a deal.”
Then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the actual leaker of Plame’s identity.
