Apparently Lewis “Scooter” Libby has lots of friends – more than 150 Washington luminaries, including Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger – wrote letters of support to the court before his sentencing for perjury and obstruction in the Valerie Plame affair.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton was not persuaded. On Tuesday he sentenced Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top deputy, to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators who were probing the leak of CIA operative Plame’s identity.
Walton, a Bush appointee, said public officials have a duty to testify honestly. The judge made the right call.
We hope President Bush also resists the pleading of Libby’s friends. The question that now has Washington atwitter is whether Bush will pardon Libby and, if so, when. The case was embarrassing to the White House from the start, focusing attention on the administration’s clumsy handling of the Iraq war and its critics. A pardon also would be damaging, despite what Libby supporters think.
Walton won’t decide until next week whether Libby can remain free while he appeals the sentence. Even if he is ordered to start serving his prison sentence, it could be another 45 to 60 days before Libby has to report.
So the president has time to ponder his next move, although a pardon would have to be issued quickly if it is to help Libby. The president has 19 months left in office, and it’s possible to issue a pardon as he makes his exit, but that’s not what Libby supporters want. Bush is at the G8 summit in Germany this week, and spokeswoman Dana Perino said he would not intervene at this point.
Libby was not charged with leaking Plame’s name but with lying to investigators probing whether the administration deliberately leaked Plame’s identity to retaliate against her husband, Joseph Wilson, who accused the government of twisting intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Libby’s sentencing comes as Plame is suing her old bosses at the CIA for holding up publication of her memoir, for which she reportedly received a $2 million advance. Plame and Wilson also are suing Cheney, Libby and others for violating their privacy rights.
Americans are increasingly concerned about the the real toll of death and destruction in Iraq, so the Libby case may seem a sideshow to many. But Judge Walton did the right thing, and we hope the president does as well.
