Libby gets 2 1/2 years; some seek pardon

WASHINGTON -- The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was sentenced yesterday to 2 1/2 years in prison for lying to investigators probing the leak of an undercover CIA agent 's identity , posing a new dilemma for President Bush: whether to pardon the loyal adviser who was a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq.

US District Judge Reggie B. Walton rejected pleas to spare I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby a prison term, agreeing with prosecutors that Libby's crimes -- false statements, perjury, and obstruction of justice -- prevented special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald from determining whether the leak itself was a violation of the law.

Speculation immediately turned to whether Bush will pardon Libby, who was also a special assistant to the president until he was indicted in late 2005.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino , who was traveling with Bush in the Czech Republic, told reporters Bush is "not going to intervene" on Libby's behalf, but Perino did not explicitly rule out a presidential pardon.

Nevertheless, Libby supporters and conservative groups urged Bush to exercise his power to pardon. The conservative National Review, in an online editorial titled "Pardon Him" posted on its website, mentioned that no one was charged with leaking the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, the act that triggered the probe.

Walton is set to rule June 14 on whether Libby must begin serving his prison term immediately or can remain free on bail pending his appeal.

If the judge allows Libby to remain free, Bush could delay a pardon decision until after the 2008 presidential election, right before he leaves office. But if Walton decides to sends Libby to prison next week, the pressure on Bush to act immediately would soar.

"The question of the pardon is not if but when," said Stephen Hess, a professor at George Washington University. "The pressures from [Republican] loyalists and in the administration will be enormous. From the loyalists' point of view, Libby was falling on his sword for the vice president."

Hess also said Bush is on his way out of office and does not have a hand picked successor, who would be damaged politically by the move, making a pardon more likely.

Libby's sentence, including a $250,000 fine and two years' probation, was considered harsh. A federal sentencing report, which weighed the case against Libby's background and his career in public service, had recommended he spend 15 to 21 months behind bars.

During yesterday's sentencing hearing, Libby said he hoped "that the court will consider . . . my whole life" before punishing him.

But Walton told a downcast Libby that the mitigating factors of his life were outweighed by his position of high authority and that those like him "have to understand that there are consequences for stepping over the line.

"People who . . . have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," said Walton, a former federal prosecutor whom Bush appointed to the bench. "I appreciate that sometimes people make mistakes [but] the evidence in this case overwhelmingly indicated Mr. Libby's culpability."

In a statement issued after the hearing, Cheney called Libby a friend who "has served the nation tirelessly and with great distinction."

A longtime protégé of neoconservatives such as former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz , Libby became a focus of Fitzgerald's investigation into whether White House officials deliberately identified Plame Wilson, who operated overseas under the cover of a CIA front company and an assumed name.

Plame Wilson's husband -- Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former US ambassador -- concluded after a 2002 fact-finding trip that European intelligence reports warning that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa for nuclear weapons were unfounded. Nevertheless, Bush used the uncorroborated intelligence in his 2003 State of the Union address to build support for toppling Saddam Hussein.

Four months after the US invasion, Wilson broke his silence in a newspaper article detailing how he could not find evidence of a uranium deal.

Eight days later, conservative columnist Robert Novak identified Plame Wilson in an article, the result of an apparent leak by the White House to discredit her husband and leave the impression that he was sent on a junket to Africa at his wife's request.

Libby was not the original source for the leak of the agent's name, but investigators found Libby had spoken about Plame Wilson with several journalists.

His case has became a touchstone for both critics and defenders of the administration's war policy. War opponents say it shows how far the White House was willing to go to silence its critics, while supporters blame Fitzgerald for making Libby a scapegoat when, after a long and expensive investigation, he did not come up with enough evidence to charge someone with outing Plame Wilson.

Bob Zelnick , a lawyer and a Boston University journalism professor, said yesterday that the case was a witch hunt that swept up Washington journalists and forced them to reveal confidential sources under oath. New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent more than two months behind bars before agreeing to testify that Libby was a source.

"The real crime in this case was committed by an out-of-control special prosecutor who knew early on that no violation of the Intelligence Identity Protection Act had been committed," Zelnick said.

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.