The New York Times
Thursday 14 June 2007
A federal judge refused today to delay the start of the prison sentence for I. Lewis Libby Jr. in the CIA leak case while he appeals his conviction, meaning he could be ordered to surrender within two months.
The ruling intensifies the legal and political drama surrounding Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury, making false statements and obstructing justice.
Judge Reggie B. Walton said today that he found no reason to postpone Mr. Libby's sentence of two and a half years in prison for four felony counts. Defense lawyers had asked that he be allowed to remain free while pursuing appeals.
Judge Walton's decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby's supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby?
So far, the president has expressed sympathy for Mr. Libby and his family but has not tipped his hand on the pardon issue.
If the president does not pardon him, and if an appeals court refuses to second-guess Judge Walton's decision, Mr. Libby will probably be ordered to report to prison in six to eight weeks' time. Federal prison authorities will decide where. "Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report," Judge Walton said.
After the hearing today, Mr. Libby was taken to a basement probation office, where he surrendered his passport. Later, he left the federal courthouse silently and with a stony face, as he did daily throughout his trial and after his sentencing on June 5.
Typically, a federal defendant like Mr. Libby, who is not regarded as dangerous, serves his sentence at a minimum-security prison camp as close to his home as possible. Thus, Mr. Libby might be sent to a camp in Western Maryland, Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
There were no surprises at today's court session, since Judge Walton had said earlier that the evidence against Mr. Libby was overwhelming and that he saw no realistic prospects for a successful appeal. Still, today's hearing was not without drama.
For one thing, Judge Walton revealed that he had received threatening letters in recent weeks. At first he just discarded them, he said, but as they kept coming, he began collecting them and has turned them over to the authorities.
Mr. Libby's lawyers made a last-ditch argument today, asserting that the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had been given too much independence. The judge dismissed that argument, saying that Mr. Fitzgerald was subservient to the Justice Department and thus could have been dismissed.
One telling moment came as Judge Walton referred to a motion filed by 12 law professors asserting that there were appealable issues in the case. The judge dismissed the motion, remarking acidly that it was "not worthy of a first-year law student."
Mr. Libby, once one of the most powerful men in the Bush administration, was undone by the accounts he gave to FBI agents and grand jurors who were investigating the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA agent whose husband, a former diplomat, wrote critically about the administration's rationale for going to war in Iraq. Mr. Libby was a principal architect of the war.
The jurors who convicted Mr. Libby rejected his claims that memory loss, rather than any attempt to deceive, lay behind any inconsistencies in his accounts to the grand jury and FBI agents. Basically, Mr. Libby claimed that reporters told him about Ms. Wilson's CIA status; the prosecutors said it was the other way around.
Mr. Libby was not charged with leaking Ms. Wilson's name and affiliation, which first appeared publicly in a column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003. Mr. Novak's sources were later revealed to be Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, and Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's senior political adviser in the White House. Neither man was charged with violating a federal law prohibiting the disclosure of the identities of CIA officers.
Judge Threatened After Sentencing Libby to Prison in CIA Leak Case
By Matt Apuzzo
The Associated Press
Thursday 14 June 2007
Washington - The U.S. judge who oversaw the CIA leak trial of a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he received threatening letters and phone calls after sentencing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to prison.
"I received a number of angry, harassing mean-spirited phone calls and letters," District Judge Reggie B. Walton said. "Some of those were wishing bad things on me and my family."
Walton made the remarks as he opened a hearing into whether to delay Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence. He said he was holding the letters in case something happened but said they would have no effect on Thursday's decision.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Cheney argues that he should not have to report to prison until his appeals have run out.
Walton has said he is not inclined to grant that request. But even if he rules that way, it is unlikely Libby would be taken away in handcuffs. Rather, it would lead to more maneuvering in Libby's legal fight.
Libby's newly formed appellate team - Lawrence S. Robbins and Mark Stancil - are standing by. If Libby loses Thursday, his lawyers have said they will ask an appeals court for an emergency order delaying the sentence. Because one of the issues in the appeal is whether Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had the authority to charge Libby, defense lawyers also could ask the Supreme Court to step in.
Then there is the pardon question.
Libby's supporters have called for President George W. Bush to wipe away Libby's convictions. Bush publicly has sidestepped pardon questions, saying he wants to let the legal case play out.
If Bush were to decide to issue a pardon, a delay would give him more flexibility to pick a time that makes the most political sense.
Bush's father pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra arms and money affair on Christmas Eve 1992. President Bill Clinton pardoned more than 100 people on his way out the White House in 2001.
President Clinton pardoned more than 100 people on his way out the White House door, including former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and Whitewater scandal figure Susan McDougal.
After a month-long trial, jurors found in March that Libby lied to investigators about how he learned that Valerie Plame, the wife of an outspoken Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA, and whom he told.
Libby maintains his innocence and says any misstatements were the result of a bad memory, not deception.
To win a delay of his sentence, Libby's lawyers would have to show there was a good chance they could overturn the conviction on appeal.
Attorneys argue that, during trial, they were unfairly prohibited from discussing the classified issues that were weighing on Libby's mind at the time of the leak and from questioning witnesses that could have helped his case.
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