Libby prepares request for new trial

Attorneys for convicted former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby began working on a request for a new trial today as the Bush White House tried to knock down speculation about a possible pardon in the CIA leak case.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty of perjury and obstruction in the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra scandal two decades ago.

The trial revealed Cheney’s eagerness to discredit Plame’s husband, Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson. Cheney put Libby, his most trusted adviser, in charge of that effort and prosecutors said Libby discussed Plame’s identity with reporters.

The case offered a glimpse into the inner workings of the administration, its policies on talking to reporters and its strategies for dealing with a crisis.

Government prosecutors led by Patrick Fitzgerald spent nearly four years investigating the case, but never charged anyone with the leak. Libby will be the only one charged in the case, Fitzgerald said.

Libby’s attorneys tried to use that during the trial to persuade jurors that, since nobody was charged in the case, Libby did not fear prosecution for the leak and so he had no reason to lie. Juror Denis Collins summed up the dilemma that he and his associates faced behind closed doors.

“There was a frustration that we were trying someone for telling a lie apparently about an event that never became important enough to file charges anywhere else,” he said Wednesday on ABC television’s “Good Morning America.”

At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow brushed off questions about whether President George Bush would entertain a pardon for Libby, saying the case remains under legal review. Snow also said Cheney’s stature within the administration has not changed or waned as a result of the verdict.

“All of this conversation, speculation about a pardon, I know, makes for interesting speculation, but it’s just that,” Snow said. “Right now, Scooter Libby and his attorneys have made clear that they’re going to try to get a retrial and if they don’t get that, they’re going to get an appeal.”

Snow said Bush is not necessarily stingy, but “careful” about giving out pardons. “These are not things to be treated blithely,” Snow said, stressing that Bush takes the pardon process very seriously. “He wants to make sure that anybody who receives one – that it’s warranted, but I would caution against any speculation in this case,” Snow said.

In 1992, as Bush’s father, former President George HW Bush, was preparing to leave office, he granted pardons for former Reagan administration officials caught up in the scandal that grew out of arms sales to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Attorney William Jeffress, meantime, said that Libby’s defence team has begun reviewing the month-long trial and preparing the request for a new one. It is common request among defense attorneys and one that is not often granted. US District Judge Reggie Walton had made several rulings in the case over the objection of defense attorneys.

For instance, Fitzgerald was allowed to show jurors newspaper articles that defence lawyers considered inaccurate and inflammatory. Defence attorneys were not permitted to question NBC reporters Tim Russert or Andrea Mitchell about televised statements they made outside of court.

And Walton curtailed the use of classified information after Libby decided not to testify.

The request for a new trial is the first move in Libby’s uncertain future. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 5, but his federal sentencing guidelines are much lower. His lawyers promised to ask for a new trial and said they will ask that Libby remain free while any appeals are fought.