President Trump issued the third pardon of his presidency Friday to I. “Scooter” Lewis Libby, who was convicted in 2007 of lying to FBI agents investigating the leak of a CIA agent’s identity.
Libby worked as chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney before he was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine. Former President George W. Bush spared him from prison by commuting his sentence.
Libby temporarily lost his ability to practice law. He also paid the $250,000 fine, performed 400 hours of community service and served two years of probation, according to the White House.
“I don’t know Mr. Libby,” Trump said in a statement, “but for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly. Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.”
Libby was the only person convicted as part of the probe into the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, after her husband cast doubt on Bush’s claims of Iraq seeking nuclear material. But nobody was convicted of the actual leak.
A press release from the White House noted Libby’s otherwise clean criminal record and cast doubt on his guilt.
“In 2015, one of the key witnesses against Mr. Libby recanted her testimony, stating publicly that she believes the prosecutor withheld relevant information from her during interviews that would have altered significantly what she said,” it said. “The next year, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals unanimously reinstated Mr. Libby to the bar, reauthorizing him to practice law. The Court agreed with the District of Columbia Disciplinary Counsel, who stated that Mr. Libby had presented “credible evidence” in support of his innocence, including evidence that a key prosecution witness had ‘changed her recollection of the events in question.'”
Trump issued his first pardon in August to political ally Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa, County, Ariz., who was awaiting sentencing for contempt for ignoring a federal judge’s immigration-enforcement order. He issued his second pardon last month to Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor jailed for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine.
So far, Trump has used his constitutional clemency powers only one other time, commuting the prison sentence of kosher meatpacking executive Sholom Rubashkin in December. Rubashkin was seven years into a 27-year sentence for financial crimes discovered after federal agents arrested 389 illegal immigrants working for his business.
