Pardon of Scooter Libby???

Trump leaning toward pardon of Scooter Libby

By ANDREW RESTUCCIA and JOSH GERSTEIN

President Donald Trump is leaning toward pardoning Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former George W. Bush administration official who was caught up in the investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA officer, according to a person familiar with the issue.

The person said Trump has been discussing pardoning Libby for months, but added that no final decision has been made and cautioned that the president could change his mind.

Libby came under scrutiny in connection with the leak in 2003 of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, who had worked undercover overseas and was married to a prominent Bush administration critic, Joseph Wilson.

Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, was never charged with leaking, but was indicted in 2005 on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to investigators, largely for denying his contacts with the media about Plame.

At a trial in 2007, a Washington, D.C., jury found Libby guilty on four of five felony counts. A judge sentenced the former Cheney aide to two-and-a-half years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In the days that followed, Cheney pleaded with President George W. Bush to pardon Libby, but the president would not go that far. He did, however, grant Libby a commutation that allowed him to avoid prison.

Near the end of Bush’s presidency, Cheney made another bid to clear Libby’s record with a full pardon, but Bush again declined.

It was never clearly established whether Libby discussed or confirmed Plame’s CIA affiliation to journalists. However, during the investigation, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage acknowledged he confirmed Plame’s CIA connection to the Washington Post before any of Libby’s reported interactions with reporters on the subject. Armitage, who said he was unaware of Plame’s covert work with the CIA, cooperated with the investigation and was never charged.

The investigation was conducted by a special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, who also served as the U.S. Attorney in Chicago. After Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself because of the probe’s connections to the White House, Deputy Attorney General James Comey appointed Fitzgerald.

During and after the investigation, Libby’s allies complained that Fitzgerald charged Libby in order to justify the extensive probe into the leak. They also said argued that it was unjust for Libby to have faced charges when the primary source of the leak, Armitage, never did.

One journalist who was forced to testify about his interactions with Libby, Matthew Cooper, then of Time Magazine, said Trump’s consideration of a pardon for Libby was a way of lashing out at Comey.

“Recall Comey appointed CIA leak special counsel Pat Fitzgerald. This is a slap at Comey,” Cooper said on Twitter Thursday night.

Fitzgerald, now an attorney in private practice in Chicago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump so far has only used his pardon power sparingly, but he did grant a pardon in August to Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who aggressively campaigned for Trump during the 2016 election. Arpaio had been found guilty of defying another federal judge's order to end ethnic profiling of Latinos.

There has been intense speculation, however, over whether Trump may pardon any of his aides facing charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, particularly former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.