Judge rejects Libby bid to delay prison

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge yesterday ordered I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to report to prison within weeks to begin serving a 30-month sentence for lying to federal investigators about his role in disclosing a covert CIA officer's identity to the media.

In ruling that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff must begin his prison term, probably within six to eight weeks, US District Judge Reggie Walton rejected the defense attorneys' request to allow Libby to remain free on bond while they appeal his conviction for perjury and obstructing justice.

At the conclusion of a two-hour hearing, Walton, who presided at Libby's trial, said he disagreed with the defense attorneys' contention that Libby's trial had generated a series of close legal questions and judicial rulings that might well be reversed by higher courts.

Libby's lawyers said they plan to ask the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to issue an emergency order delaying the start of his sentence.

When he imposed the jail term last week, Walton told Libby that the evidence of his guilt had been "overwhelming" and warned that Libby was unlikely to win a reversal of his conviction.

For that reason, Walton said during the sentencing, he was not inclined to release Libby on bond during his appeal, a process that could last until the end of President Bush's term next year.

In addition to determining the immediate fate of Libby, a 56-year-old lawyer who became a national security specialist in the government's highest echelons, Walton's decision is expected to have a ripple effect on the White House.

By ordering Libby to begin serving his term as soon as federal authorities select a prison, Walton added pressure on Bush to consider whether to pardon Libby -- a delicate decision that White House aides had hoped to avoid as long as possible.

Unless Walton's decision is overturned swiftly by a higher court, Bush will have to choose between allowing a key architect of his administration to go to prison and the political consequences of pardoning him. The decision is further complicated by the Libby case's roots in the Iraq war, the issue that has badly eroded Bush's standing with the public.

Libby supporters, mainly loyal conservatives and Republican Party activists, already are lobbying Bush to employ his presidential authority on behalf of Libby, who was Cheney's top aide until he resigned the day of his indictment in October 2005.

After Walton's ruling, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "Scooter Libby still has the right to appeal, and, therefore, the president will continue not to intervene in the judicial process. The president feels terribly for Scooter, his wife, and their young children and all that they're going through."

Libby remained stoic as Walton announced his decision. His wife, Harriet Grant, wiped away tears. Two of his lawyers shook their heads ruefully.

Libby and his wife were escorted by US marshals through a back entrance of the courtroom for processing by federal probation officials.

Walton opened the hearing by noting the intense passions that surround the case. Since he imposed the sentence, the judge said, "I received a number of angry, harassing, mean-spirited phone calls and letters, some of those related to wishing bad things upon me and my family." Walton added: "Obviously, I find that very troubling. Those types of things cannot and will not have an impact on my decision."

Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence is a relatively tough punishment for the crimes he committed, according to sentencing guidelines. He was also fined $250,000. His lawyers had sought probation.

In March, a federal jury found Libby guilty of four felonies for lying to FBI agents and the grand jury that investigated the leak of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson 's identity. The jury convicted Libby of two perjury counts and one count each of obstructing justice and making false statements about when and how he learned Plame Wilson 's identity -- and what he told journalists about her.

The central question in the investigation was whether top administration officials had violated an intelligence law in 2003, when several told a handful of Washington journalists that a fierce, early critic of the Iraq war was married to Plame Wilson .

Her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, had been sent by the CIA in 2002 to the African nation of Niger to evaluate reports that Iraq had sought to buy yellowcake uranium for a nuclear weapons program . Wilson concluded that the reports were unfounded, and, shortly after the war began, publicly accused the administration of distorting his findings to justify the invasion.

Prosecutors alleged that Libby told reporters about Plame Wilson's role at the CIA as part of an administration strategy to discredit Wilson by insinuating that the agency had chosen him for the Niger mission based on nepotism. Libby's lawyers unsuccessfully argued that he had innocently misremembered his conversations about Plame Wilson because he was too busy with more important national security work.