WASHINGTON – There was a “tremendous amount of sympathy” for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby among the 11 jurors deciding his fate. According to one panel member, some believed he was being made a “fall guy” for his White House superiors.
But when it got down to the basic question facing the jury, there was little doubt: Libby, they easily decided, was guilty as charged on four of the five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice lodged against him.
Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was charged with lying to investigators about his role in a White House campaign to discredit a critic, former envoy Joseph Wilson, an effort that led to the exposure of the critic’s wife, undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Libby was the only person charged in the incident.
The jurors swept aside the main pillar of the defense – that Libby was so overwhelmed by his job that he could not be expected to recall details of conversations with reporters, which led to Plame’s outing in the press in 2003.
Speaking for the panel Tuesday after its verdict was announced, juror Denis Collins said the jury regarded this as “the least convincing thing” Libby’s lawyers put forward.
A single word Libby uttered when first answering questions about the case also proved telling.
In his grand-jury testimony – he declined to take the stand in the trial – Libby had claimed to have heard the identity of an undercover CIA officer from NBC News anchor Tim Russert, and to have been “surprised” to have that morsel come up in conversation.
The jurors did not buy it, Collins said, because the prospect that Libby had not known of Valerie Plame’s identity before then was contradicted by so many other witnesses and pieces of evidence.
Some jurors wondered why Libby was being singled out, Collins said. After all, other Bush administration officials had disclosed Plame’s identity to reporters as part of an effort to discredit her husband and his criticism of the case for war in Iraq, he said. Yet those other officials never faced criminal charges.
“There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury,” Collins said. “It was said a number of times: What are we doing with this guy? Where’s (top White House political aide Karl) Rove, where are these other guys?”
Libby, Collins said, “was the fall guy. He was tasked by the vice president to go and talk to reporters.”
Libby faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines he is expected to receive as few as two years. Sentencing was set for June 5.
Libby remained free on a personal recognizance bond, and his lawyer said he would appeal.
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