Libby found guilty in CIA leak case

? The CIA leak case verdict: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is guilty of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to reporters. He was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI.

He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.

The case brought new attention to the Bush administration’s much-criticized handling of weapons of mass destruction intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is the only person charged in the case, which grew out of an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who emerged in mid-2003 as an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says Libby learned about Plame from Cheney and other officials in June 2003 and relayed it to reporters.

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

The verdict was read on the 10th day of deliberations. Libby faces up to 30 years in prison, though under federal sentencing guidelines likely will receive far less.

Libby will be allowed to remain free while awaiting sentencing, which is set for June 5.

l Case focuses new attention on White House ethics. Page 4A