I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s right-hand man, was convicted Tuesday of lying to a grand jury and obstructing a federal investigation into the leak of a CIA agent’s identity, bolstering claims that the Bush administration mishandled intelligence and smeared critics who questioned the war.
Libby, 56, stood stone-faced in the Washington courtroom as the federal jury forewoman announced the guilty verdicts: one count of obstruction, two counts of perjury and one count of lying to the FBI. The penalties on those charges call for some 30 years of incarceration, but the prosecutor said federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 18 months to 3 years.
A few minutes after the verdict, Libby appeared outside the Washington courthouse and huddled with his family as defense attorney Theodore Wells vowed to appeal.
“We intend to keep fighting for his innocence,” Well said. Libby did not speak.
He is the highest-ranking White House official to earn a felony conviction since the Iran-Contra scandal.
The verdict winds down a nearly four-year probe into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. She was revealed in a Robert Novak column after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, accused the administration of twisting intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.
The monthlong trial featured the biggest names in the news business and offered an unflattering glimpse at the media’s symbiotic relationship with the powerful people they cover.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he was gratified by the jury’s decision but saddened that Libby’s actions placed a cloud over the White House, which he described during the trial as being obsessed with Wilson.
“The results are actually sad,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s sad that we had a situation where a high-level official who worked in the office of the vice president lied under oath and obstructed justice.”
Juror Denis Collins said some jury members sympathized with Libby and believed he was being made a scapegoat to preserve Bush’s top political advisor, Karl Rove.
“It was said a number of times, ‘Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys?’ “Collins said. “I’m not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty, but it seemed like he was – as Mr. Wells said – the fall guy.”
Fitzgerald said he did not expect any more charges in the case.
Democrats reacted swiftly to the felony conviction.
“Today’s guilty verdicts are not solely about the acts of one individual,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The testimony unmistakably revealed – at the highest levels of the Bush administration – a callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq.”
