Trump pardons Scooter Libby, says he was ‘treated unfairly’

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued a pardon Friday to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, suggesting the former top aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney had been “treated unfairly” by a special counsel. The pardon comes at a moment when the president faces an escalating special counsel investigation of his own. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted the pardon was not intended to send a message to the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, saying, “One thing has nothing to do with the other.” But critics noted the timing, coming as Trump fumes over Robert Mueller’s probe, which he has dubbed a “witch hunt.”

Trump said in a statement that he didn’t know Libby, “but for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly.” Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted in 2007 of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak of the covert identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, though no one was ever charged for the leak. President George W. Bush later commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence but didn’t issue a pardon despite intense pressure from Cheney.

In a statement, Libby thanked Trump, saying his family has “suffered under the weight of a terrible injustice.” He said Trump “recognized this wrong and would not let it persist. For this honourable act, we shall forever be grateful.”

Pardons are not a finding of innocence, but they do restore the civil rights that are normally lost because of a criminal conviction.