Washington – President Bush today left open the possibility of an eventual pardon for former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
“As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out,” the president said a day after commuting Libby’s 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
Bush said he had weighed his decision carefully to erase Libby’s prison time for lying and conspiracy. He said the jury’s conviction should stand but that the prison term was too severe.
“I made a judgment, a considered judgment, that I believe was the right decision to make in this case,” the president said. “And I stand by it.”
Bush spoke to reporters after visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His decision on Libby was roundly criticized by Democrats; Republicans on some fronts welcomed the decision, with others saying he should have gone further.
Earlier today, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that even with Bush’s decision, Libby has a felony conviction on his record, two years’ probation, a $250,000 fine and the likely loss of his legal career. “So this is hardly a slap on the wrist,” Snow said.
While Democrats criticized the president, Snow said Bush was “getting pounded on the right for not granting a full pardon.”
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who sentenced Libby to prison, declined today to discuss the case or his views on sentencing.
With prison seeming all but certain for Libby, Bush on Monday suddenly spared Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. The move came just hours after a federal appeals-court panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term. The Bureau of Prisons had already assigned Libby a prison-identification number.
Asked whether Cheney – who calls Libby a friend and who has enormous influence in the White house – had pressed for Bush to commute Libby’s sentence, Snow said, “I don’t have direct knowledge. But on the other hand, the president did consult with most senior officials, and I’m sure that everybody had an opportunity to share their views.”
The White House had previously said, however, that the president made the decision without seeking any advice from the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department.
Snow defended that decision, saying details of the case were still fresh in everybody’s mind and that the president did not need to be brought up to date on details.
Democrats have charged cronyism in Bush’s sparing Libby jail time. But Snow said, “The president … spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to maintain faith in the jury system, and he did that by keeping intact the conviction and some of the punishments,” Snow said.
Snow was asked by a reporter if anyone in the administration would ever apologize for what led to the entire investigation – public disclosure that Valerie Plame, the wife of anti-war critic and former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, was an undercover CIA officer.
“Yeah, it’s improper to be leaking those names,” Snow said.
Pressed on whether someone in the administration owed the American public an apology, Snow said, “I’ll apologize. Done.”
Wilson, meanwhile, suggested the president’s decision was an effort to protect Cheney and perhaps his own office.
In an interview with APTN, he called Bush’s action “a continuation of the coverup for which Scooter Libby was originally convicted.”
Top Democrats agreed.
“Libby’s conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush’s decision showed the president “condones criminal conduct.”
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disputed Bush’s assertion that the prison term was excessive. Libby was sentenced under the same laws as other criminals, Fitzgerald said. “It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.”
Some lawyers said Bush’s statement about Libby’s harsh sentence showed that the administration was out of touch with the reality of today’s federal sentencing guidelines. People like Libby – first-time, nonviolent offenders – frequently receive lengthy sentences.
Because he was not pardoned, Libby remains the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a crime since the Iran-Contra affair.
