President Donald Trump has signed a pardon for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Libby was convicted of perjury in 2007, as well as obstruction of justice, and making false statements when he lied to the FBI about leaking the name of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for this, though then-President Bush commuted his sentence (declining to pardon him).
Trump has been mulling over the pardon for months with many high-end Conservatives “pressuring” him to do so…
The last big news pardon was that of Joe Arpaio last year.
Arpaio, 85, had been found guilty July 31 of criminal contempt for “flagrant disregard” of another federal judge’s order in a racial-profiling case. President Trump pardoned him Aug. 25 before Arpaio could be sentenced on the conviction, and Arpaio had faced up to a year’s incarceration.
In December 2011, District Judge G. Murray Snow barred Arpaio’s deputies from detaining individuals based on their immigration status, effectively putting an end to the long-time sheriff’s signature immigration patrols. But the practice continued for 17 months, and during this time, Arpaio’s office illegally detained at least 171 individuals.
As reported by ABC News:
Libby was convicted in 2007 of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a former covert CIA operative. Then-President George Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month sentence, sparing him prison time, but didn’t pardon him.
After Libby claimed that he couldn’t have been the source of the leak, multiple people came forward to testify that they learned of Plame’s identity from Libby prior to when Libby said he had first received the information.
At trial, Libby claimed to have simply forgotten he actually learned about the identity from Cheney a month before he said he had.