scooter libby gov attorney who put him away

by Prof. Rosario Streich MD 6 min read

Who is Scooter Libby and what did he do?

Oct 28, 2005 · Libby now stands accused of being one of the white-collar criminals that he once represented as a high-powered defense attorney in the 1980s. ... who put this together . . . we essentially threw ...

What was Libby's trial?

Jun 05, 2018 · ‘Scooter’ Libby sentenced to federal prison, June 5, 2007 I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby (right) is escorted to a waiting vehicle with his attorney, Theodore Well, outside federal court in Washington on...

What was the United States v Libby?

Apr 06, 2015 · Mr. Libby’s sentence included a $250,000 fine, 30 months in jail and 400 hours of community service. President George W. Bush commuted the prison sentence but declined to pardon him. U.S. v. I. Lewis Libby is worth revisiting to set the record straight. It also illustrates the damage that can be done to national security by a special counsel who, finding no crime, …

What happened to Libby’s appeal?

Call Him 'Scooter,' Libby Lawyer Tells Jurors In a trial, the words lawyers use can be as important as the witnesses they present. The difference between the language of the defense and ...

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United States v. Libby was the federal trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former high-ranking official in the George W. Bush administration, for interfering with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation of the Plame affair.. Libby served as Assistant to the President under George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States and …

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When was Libby indicted?

In 2005, while he was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, a federal grand jury indicted Libby, after an investigation into the leak of the covert identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

How long was Scooter in prison?

On this day in 2007, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to 30 months in federal prison, imposed a $250,000 fine and ordered Libby to undergo a further two years of supervised release, including 400 hours of community service.

Who was the prosecutor for the Libby case?

Speaking to the media outside the courtroom after the verdict, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that "The jury worked very long and hard and deliberated at length ... [and] was obviously convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had lied and obstructed justice in a serious manner. ... 'I do not expect to file any further charges,' Fitzgerald said. 'We're all going back to our day jobs.'" As "the trial confirmed [that the leak] came first from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage ", and since Fitzgerald did not charge Armitage and expects to charge no one else, Libby's conviction "closed ... the nearly four-year investigation into how the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, and her classified job at the CIA were leaked to reporters in 2003 just days after Wilson publicly accused the administration of doctoring prewar intelligence."

When was Libby indicted?

On October 28, 2005, after twenty-two months of the investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Libby in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. On November 3, 2005, Libby appeared at his arraignment before Judge Reggie B. Walton and pleaded not guilty.

How long is Libby's sentence?

Given current federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, if he had been convicted on all five counts, Libby's sentence could have ranged from no imprisonment to imprisonment of up to 25 years and a fine of $US1,000,000. Given those non-binding guidelines, according to lawyer, author, New Yorker staff writer, and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Anderson Cooper 360°, the sentence based on Libby's conviction on four counts could have been between "one and a half to three years."

Who was the prosecutor for the Plame affair?

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former high-ranking official in the George W. Bush administration, for interfering with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald 's criminal investigation of the Plame affair . Libby served as Assistant to the President under George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to the Vice President ...

When did the prison term for Libby go to prison?

After denial of Libby's bond by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, President Bush commuted the prison term portion of Libby's sentence on July 2, 2007, leaving in place the felony conviction, the $250,000 fine, and the terms of probation (supervised release).

Who was the Special Counsel in the Plame case?

On December 30, 2003, Patrick J. Fitzgerald was named Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey and charged with conducting the investigation into the Plame affair. Fitzgerald was granted the full plenary power of the Attorney General in the Libby case, as clarified by Comey in letters of February 6, 2004, and August 12, 2005.

Did Libby's lawyers say he was innocent?

After the verdict, initially, Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial, and that, if that attempt were to fail, they would appeal Libby's conviction. "'We have every confidence Mr. Libby ultimately will be vindicated,' defense attorney Ted Wells told reporters. He said that Libby was 'totally innocent and that he did not do anything wrong.' Libby did not speak to reporters." His lawyers took no questions.

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Personal History

  • Background and education
    Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby. Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a j…
  • Marriage and family
    Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: "'When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chos…
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The Apprentice

  • Libby's only novel, The Apprentice, about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the C…
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Law Career

  • After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appealson May 19, 1978. Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at th…
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Government Public Service and Political Career

  • In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Forei…
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Involvement in The Plame Affair

  • Between 2003 and 2005, intense speculation centered on the possibility that Libby may have been the administration official who had "leaked" classified employment information about Valerie Plame, a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and the wife of Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson, to New York Times reporter Judith Millerand other reporters and later tried to hide his ha…
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Indictment and Resignation

  • On October 28, 2005, as a result of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicted Libby on five counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury in his testimony before the grand jury. Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby had told FBI inve…
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Trial, Conviction, and Sentencing

  • On March 6, 2007, the jury convicted him on four of the five counts: obstruction of justice, one count of making false statements when interviewed by agents of the FBI, and two counts of perjury. They acquitted him on count three, the second charge of making false statements when interviewed by federal agents about his conversations with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. Libb…
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The Wilsons' Civil Suit

  • On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007. The Wil…
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Restoration of Voting Rights, Law License, and Presidential Pardon

  • Libby's voting rights were restored on November 1, 2012 by then-Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. Libby was part of a larger group of individuals who had their voting rights restored by McDonnell, all of whom were non-violent offenders. Three years later, on November 3, 2016, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals granted Libby's petition for reinstatement to the D.C. Bar. …
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in Media Portrayals

  • David Andrews played Scooter Libby in the 2010 film Fair Game, which is about the Plame affair. Justin Kirk played Libby in the 2018 film Vice.
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