US News

Harry Hope · Guest

From The New York Daily News, 3/7/06:
http://nydailynews.com/front/story/503305p-424414c.html

Libby, you must remember this ... guilty!!

Jurors give forgetful ex-veep aide a memorable verdict at end of trial
for perjury, lying & obstructing justice

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -

He was once heralded as "Cheney's Cheney" for his influence with his
boss, the vice president.

But yesterday Lewis (Scooter) Libby stood convicted by a Washington
jury of being a simple liar.

In a case that had threatened the inner sanctums of the White House,
Libby was found guilty of lying, perjury and obstruction of justice.

As the jury forewoman replied "guilty" four times when the judge read
the counts, Cheney's diminutive former chief of staff seemed even
smaller in disgrace.

It was a stunning end to a case nearly four years in the making, which
sank some of the White House's biggest powerbrokers in the mire of a
criminal probe into who leaked the name of CIA spy Valerie Plame.

But as 10 days of jury deliberations came to an end, even the jurors
admitted they felt Libby was simply a "fall guy" for others in the
administration, such as Cheney and President Bush's political guru -
and admitted leaker - Karl Rove.

"It was said a number of times, What are we doing with this guy here?
Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?" said juror Denis Collins.

The juror said Libby "was tasked by the vice president to go out and
talk to reporters" about Plame.

Collins said jurors believed the defense argument that "it seemed like
[Libby] was ... the fall guy."

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

The verdict also made Libby the highest-ranking government official
convicted of a crime in two decades.

Libby strode confidently into the courtroom.

But his defiant, trademark smirk melted away as the jury delivered its
verdict and the blood drained from his face.

His wife, Harriet Grant, seated in the front row, tensed up while a
member of Libby's legal team comforted her.

When the jury left, she appeared spitting mad.

The President watched news of the verdict on television at the White
House.

Deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Bush respected the jury's
verdict but "was saddened for Scooter Libby and his family."

In a written statement, Cheney called the verdict disappointing.

Democrats, however, had no sympathy.

"It's about time someone in the Bush administration has been held
accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit
war critics," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Reid said Bush should promise not to pardon Libby for his criminal
acts.

Libby could face up to 25 years in prison when sentenced June 5, but
federal sentencing guidelines will probably prescribe far less,
perhaps one to three years.

Defense attorneys said they would ask for a retrial and, if that
fails, appeal the conviction.

"We have every confidence Mr. Libby ultimately will be vindicated,"
defense attorney Theodore Wells told reporters. He said that Libby was
"totally innocent and ... did not do anything wrong."

Fitzgerald made the case that the vice president's office was furious
when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly challenged the White
House's reasons for invading Iraq.

Wilson had been sent to Niger by the CIA to check on a report that
Saddam Hussein bought uranium to make nuclear bombs.

Wilson found it was untrue and was dismayed when Bush continued to
cite the Niger uranium rumor as a reason for going to war.

When Wilson went public with his report, Libby went on the hunt for
dirt and found Plame - who is Wilson's wife.

Within days, top White House officials whispered about Plame to
reporters and publication of her name ruined her career as a covert
CIA operative.

None of the nearly dozen Bush aides who blabbed about the secret spy
ever was charged in the leak.

Fitzgerald said in closing arguments that a "cloud" hung over the vice
president's office.

But yesterday Fitzgerald said his probe is finished and there will be
no further charges against anyone.

Wilson, whose wife left the CIA after she was exposed, said,
"Convicting him of perjury was like convicting Al Capone of tax
evasion."

________________________________________

Feel sorry for ole Scooter? uh uh. Scooter's a big boy. It was his
choice to be a lying fall guy for Tricky Dicky Cheney.

Harry