Hodes: Libby found guilty for trying to cover up 'war on the truth'

WASHINGTON --Lewis "Scooter" Libby was found guilty for trying to cover up the Bush administration's "war on the truth," Rep. Paul Hodes said Tuesday, following the adviser's conviction of lying and obstructing a leak investigation.

"The administration used faulty intelligence to convince Americans that we needed to invade Iraq," Hodes, D-N.H., said in a statement. "Ambassador Joe Wilson exposed one of their lies, so Libby and his partners in dirty tricks retaliated against the truth. They played political games with our national security by ruining the career of Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA agent trying to keep our enemies from getting nuclear weapons."

Once the closest adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby was convicted on four of five charges, ending a seven-week CIA leak trial that focused new attention on the Bush administration's much-criticized handling of intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war.

In the end, jurors said they did not believe Libby's main defense: that he hadn't lied but merely had a bad memory.

"If the lies and corruption of the Bush Administration go beyond Scooter Libby, we need to know," Hodes said. "I urge the president and vice president to cooperate with any further investigations, and I especially urge the president to avoid any temptation to pardon Scooter Libby for putting politics before national security."