I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted last Tuesday of lying to the FBI and a grand jury in the investigation of the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to reporters.
Libby was found guilty on four of the five charges of perjury and obstruction of justice brought against him. He was acquitted on the charge of lying to the FBI about his conversations about Plame with a TIME reporter.
He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each guilty count, though legal experts predict a sentence of 21-27 months. His lawyers hope to appeal the decision.
"We believe, as we said at the time of his indictment, that he is totally innocent, and that he did not do anything wrong," Libby's attorney Theodore Wells Jr. said in an article in The Washington Post on March 7 . "We intend to keep fighting to establish his innocence."
President Bush said he was "saddened" by the conviction, and was non-committal about the possibility of a pardon, which is being sought by many conservatives and Libby's supporters.
"Mr. Libby is a good candidate for a pardon -- I'll put it that way," said Senator Lindsey Graham(R-SC). "Mr. Libby can make an application for a pardon, and the president can seriously consider it," he told The Washington Post.
The saga began in July 2003 when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an editorial criticizing one of the Bush administration's justifications for war with Iraq - Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson had gone to Niger for the CIA in late 2002 to investigate those claims.
A week after the editorial was published, Bob Novak, citing anonymous White House officials, revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. The revelation sparked an FBI investigation into the identity of the source.
Though Libby was not charged with leaking Plame's identity (former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage later admitted to that), he was charged with lying to investigators about how he learned Plame's identity.
Libby was found guilty on four of the five charges of perjury and obstruction of justice brought against him. He was acquitted on the charge of lying to the FBI about his conversations about Plame with a TIME reporter.
He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each guilty count, though legal experts predict a sentence of 21-27 months. His lawyers hope to appeal the decision.
"We believe, as we said at the time of his indictment, that he is totally innocent, and that he did not do anything wrong," Libby's attorney Theodore Wells Jr. said in an article in The Washington Post on March 7 . "We intend to keep fighting to establish his innocence."
President Bush said he was "saddened" by the conviction, and was non-committal about the possibility of a pardon, which is being sought by many conservatives and Libby's supporters.
"Mr. Libby is a good candidate for a pardon -- I'll put it that way," said Senator Lindsey Graham(R-SC). "Mr. Libby can make an application for a pardon, and the president can seriously consider it," he told The Washington Post.
The saga began in July 2003 when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an editorial criticizing one of the Bush administration's justifications for war with Iraq - Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson had gone to Niger for the CIA in late 2002 to investigate those claims.
A week after the editorial was published, Bob Novak, citing anonymous White House officials, revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. The revelation sparked an FBI investigation into the identity of the source.
Though Libby was not charged with leaking Plame's identity (former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage later admitted to that), he was charged with lying to investigators about how he learned Plame's identity.
