Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to vice-president Dick Cheney under George W Bush.
Libby was convicted in 2007 of obstruction of justice and perjury, in connection with an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame. His conviction was the result of an investigation by the special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by the then deputy attorney general, James Comey.
President Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, sparing him jail time but leaving him a convicted felon who had to pay a fine and do community service. Trump’s pardon totally expunges the conviction.
In a statement, the president said: “I don’t know Mr Libby 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.”
The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, told reporters: “The president thought it was the right thing to do.”
A spokesman for Bush said: “President Bush is very pleased for Scooter and his family.”
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In his own statement, Libby said: “My family and I are immensely grateful to President Trump for his gracious decision to grant a pardon. For over a dozen years we have suffered under the weight of a terrible injustice.”
Plame, whose identity was made public after her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote an op-ed critical of part of the Bush administration’s justification for the Iraq war, said it was “simply false” that Libby had been treated unfairly.
She added: “If a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. President Trump’s pardon is not based on the truth.”
Recent reports that a Trump lawyer inquired about pardoning power prompted controversy in Washington. The inquiries were reportedly made in relation to the former Trump aides Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, the former having pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and the latter having pleaded not guilty on financial charges arising from the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference.
Trump has reportedly considered firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed after Comey was fired as FBI director last May.
Talking to reporters on the way into the White House on Friday morning, Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway said: “Many people think that Scooter Libby was a victim of a special counsel gone amok.”
In a statement, the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said: “President Trump’s pardon of Scooter Libby makes clear his contempt for the rule of law.
“This pardon sends a troubling signal to the president’s allies that obstructing justice will be rewarded. The suggestion that those who lie under oath may be rewarded with pardons poses a threat to the integrity of the special counsel investigation, and to our democracy.”
A White House statement said: “Before his conviction, Mr Libby had rendered more than a decade of honorable service to the nation as a public servant at the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the White House. His record since his conviction is similarly unblemished, and he continues to be held in high regard by his colleagues and peers.”
Libby said: “Many good and noble Americans have told me that, having seen how I was treated, they would never go into public service. No one understands their misgivings more than I do. Perhaps one day public service in America will prove less of a blood sport. Until then, we are all fortunate that there are those who will enter the arena for their love of our country and our freedoms.”
Libby is the third person pardoned by Trump. He has pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Trump supporter convicted for violating a federal court order to stop racial profiling against Latinos, and Kristian Saucier, a sailor who took photos in a classified area of a submarine. Saucier’s case was often compared by Trump and other Republicans to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.
Libby’s case is discussed in A Higher Loyalty, the book by Comey which was obtained by the Guardian and other outlets on Thursday ahead of publication next week. The book prompted an angry Twitter outburst from Trump in which he called Comey “a proven LEAKER & LIAR” and “an untruthful slime ball”.
Comey writes that the Libby case was “one of my early experiences in Washington of people deciding motivations based on their partisan allegiance. To Democrats, it was obvious members of a Republican administration were subverting justice to undermine and punish their critics. To Republicans, it was just as obvious that this was a witch-hunt against people who made an inconsequential mistake.”
On Friday, there was disagreement within Bush-era Republican circles.
Liz Cheney, the former vice-president’s daughter and now a US representative for Wyoming, wrote on Twitter: “Scooter Libby is a good, honorable and innocent man who was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct and a miscarriage of justice. Thank you [Donald Trump] for righting a terrible wrong and delivering the full pardon Scooter deserved.”
But Matthew Dowd, an ABC political analyst who was chief strategist on Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, wrote: “This pardon of Scooter Libby is simply outrageous.
“I worked for President Bush from 1999 to 2005, and Scooter is a felon whom President Bush would not even pardon. He was convicted of obstruction of justice, lying, and perjury. This is a dark day for the rule of law in America.”