Former Top Cheney Aide Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial
06 March 2007
Jurors have found the former top aide to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney guilty of four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice during an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby was charged with lying to both a U.S. grand jury and federal investigators trying to determine who exposed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Plame is married to former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who openly criticized the Bush administration about its reasons for launching the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A White House spokeswoman says President Bush respects the guilty verdict, but is saddened for Scooter Libby and his family.
Chief Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said it is sad that a high-level official who worked for the vice president lied and obstructed justice.
Defense Attorney Ted Wells said he intends to file a motion for a new trial, and that if that is denied, he will appeal the conviction. He said he is confident Libby will be vindicated.
The verdict was announced in Washington, D.C. Tuesday after 10 days of deliberations by an 11-member jury.
The 56-year-old Libby could face up to 30 years in prison and more than one million dollars in fines.
Prosecutors say Libby leaked the information as part of a coordinated White House effort to discredit Wilson, a public critic of the Iraq war.
Chief Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the disclosure of Plame's identity "cast a cloud" over the White House and over Vice President Cheney in particular.
Libby's perjury and obstruction of justice trial is the only criminal case to emerge from the CIA leak investigation.
Libby's defense attorneys argued that Libby had a bad memory and did not deliberately lie.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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