Libby found guilty on 4 counts

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

A federal jury yesterday found former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. guilty on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

After 10 days of deliberations, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney was acquitted by a jury of seven women and four men on one count of lying to the FBI.

Libby, 56, is the only person charged in a case brought by Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald after a four-year investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Mrs. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who emerged in mid-2003 as an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's case for the war in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered a pre-sentencing report by May 15, which will be used to determine Libby's sentence. At sentencing on June 5, Libby faces up to 30 years in prison, although under federal sentencing guidelines he is expected to receive much less time.

Libby showed little reaction as the verdict was read and stood expressionless as the jury left the courtroom. His wife, Harriet Grant, sobbed as the verdict was read.

"We believe, as we said at the time of his indictment, that he is totally innocent, totally innocent, and that he did not do anything wrong," said Libby's attorney, Theodore Wells. "And we intend to keep fighting to establish his innocence."

Mr. Wells said he will ask for a new trial and, failing that, will appeal the verdict. The defense team had said Libby recalled his conversations to the best of his ability and that any inaccurate statements he made to the FBI or the federal grand jury were the result of a faulty memory.

But Mr. Fitzgerald, who said no additional charges would be filed in the case, argued in court that Libby learned about Mrs. Plame from Mr. Cheney and other officials in June 2003 and relayed her name and CIA role to reporters.

"The results are actually sad," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "It's sad that we had a situation where a high-level official person who worked in the office of the vice president obstructed justice and lied under oath. We wish that it had not happened, but it did."

One of the jurors, Denis Collins, a former reporter for The Washington Post, said the jury felt "a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby," adding that jurors asked each other on a number of occasions whether others should have been charged.