Libby escapes prison term

WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush commuted a 30 month jail term imposed on a former top White House aide for lying to federal investigators, sparking outrage from opposition Democrats.

The special prosecutor in the case also complained about Bush’s comment in calling the sentence against Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby ‘excessive’. The US president commuted the prison term but did not pardon the conviction which arose out of Libby’s defence of the White House’s justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.”I respect the jury’s verdict.But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Libby is excessive,” Bush said in a statement.”Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the action ‘disgraceful’.Libby, who was a trusted aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, still faces a 250 000 dollar fine and a two-year probation after being convicted in March of perjury and obstructing justice.Libby was found guilty of lying to federal investigators in a case probing whether White House officials had leaked the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.It was alleged that Plame’s cover as a CIA agent was deliberately leaked to the media and blown in July 2003 to avenge criticism of the war by her husband, ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson, after the invasion.Libby, 56, was found guilty of lying about conversations he had with reporters about Plame, but not of actually leaking her name.Bush’s decision came after a US judge ordered on June 14 that Libby had to go to jail while his lawyer appealed his sentence.”With the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision,” Bush said.”Critics point out that neither Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation,” Bush said.”Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.”The move provoked a slew of reactions along political lines.Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, branded it a ‘betrayal of trust of the American people’.”The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today,” said former senator John Edwards, a Democratic presidential hopeful.Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought the Libby case, disputed Bush’s view that the sentence was ‘excessive’, stressing that Libby ‘remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process’.Republican 2008 presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said however that Bush had made ‘a reasonable decision’, which he called ‘correct’.Nampa-AFPThe US president commuted the prison term but did not pardon the conviction which arose out of Libby’s defence of the White House’s justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.”I respect the jury’s verdict.But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Libby is excessive,” Bush said in a statement.”Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the action ‘disgraceful’.Libby, who was a trusted aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, still faces a 250 000 dollar fine and a two-year probation after being convicted in March of perjury and obstructing justice.Libby was found guilty of lying to federal investigators in a case probing whether White House officials had leaked the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.It was alleged that Plame’s cover as a CIA agent was deliberately leaked to the media and blown in July 2003 to avenge criticism of the war by her husband, ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson, after the invasion.Libby, 56, was found guilty of lying about conversations he had with reporters about Plame, but not of actually leaking her name.Bush’s decision came after a US judge ordered on June 14 that Libby had to go to jail while his lawyer appealed his sentence.”With the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision,” Bush said.”Critics point out that neither Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation,” Bush said.”Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.”The move provoked a slew of reactions along political lines.Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, branded it a ‘betrayal of trust of the American people’.”The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today,” said former senator John Edwards, a Democratic presidential hopeful.Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought the Libby case, disputed Bush’s view that the sentence was ‘excessive’, stressing that Libby ‘remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process’.Republican 2008 presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said however that Bush had made ‘a reasonable decision’, which he called ‘correct’.Nampa-AFP