TODAY’S EXPLAINER

WHO IS SCOOTER LIBBY?

Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2001 to 2005, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Friday, forgiving his conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the leak of a former CIA officer’s identity.

Here are five things to know about Libby:

1. Libby, 67, was born in New Haven, Conn., and graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1972.

2. Brought in by his Yale mentor Paul Wolfowitz in 1981, Libby served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations — first in the State Department, then the Department of Defense — before becoming Cheney’s chief of staff in 2001.

3. Libby was convicted of four felonies in 2007 — for perjury before a grand jury, lying to FBI investigators and obstruction of justice during an investigation into the disclosure of the work of former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

4. Libby’s sentence of 30 months in prison and a fine of $250,000 was commuted by then-President George W. Bush. Although spared prison time, Libby was not pardoned. His voting rights were restored by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2013.

5. President Trump said that Libby “was a good guy who got screwed,” according to his lawyer, Victoria Toensing.