Report: Cheney Says Bush Should've Pardoned Libby
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should have received a pardon from President Bush, former Vice President Cheney said recently, airing one of few public disagreements between the ex-teammates.
Cheney told The Weekly Standard that Libby, his former chief of staff, was a "victim of a serious miscarriage of justice" after he was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury in the case of the leak of former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson's name.
"Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and honorable men I've ever known. He's been an outstanding public servant throughout his career. He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon. Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision," Cheney told the magazine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Libby supporters say his trial was pure politics, in particular since former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who was the first to reveal Plame's name, was never charged and the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, knew the source of the leak all along.
Defenders add that Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, started the political dogfight by lying about his trip to Niger to discover whether Iraqi scientists had tried to buy yellowcake uranium there.
Bush did commute Libby's 30-month prison sentence in the summer of 2007, saying the sentence was excessive, though he did not dispute the jury's findings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Weekly Standard cited only four times that Cheney publicly disagreed with Bush -- on a constitutional ban on gay marriage; on firing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; on Washington, D.C.'s gun ban; and on North Korea.