A judge told Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby to begin serving a term of supervised release, while saying he was ``somewhat perplexed'' that President George W. Bush said the prison sentence he ordered for Libby was excessive.
Libby, freed by Bush from his 2 1/2-year prison sentence in the CIA leak case, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to report to the probation office in Washington by the end of the day tomorrow. Libby, ex-chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted in March of obstructing an investigation of the 2003 leak of a CIA official's identity.
Walton said he determined that Libby can still be required to serve two years of supervised release even after Bush commuted his prison sentence on July 2. Bush said the sentence imposed by Walton was ``excessive.''
The prison term was ``consistent with the bottom end'' of federal sentencing guidelines, Walton's opinion said today. ``The court is somewhat perplexed as to how its sentence could accurately be characterized as excessive.''
Bush said today at a press conference that his decision on Libby's sentence was ``fair and balanced.''
A jury convicted Libby on March 6 of lying to grand jurors and federal agents during an investigation into the 2003 leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a Central Intelligence Agency official whose husband criticized Bush's Iraq war policy.
Jurors found that Libby lied to thwart the investigation of whether the Bush administration deliberately identified Plame to retaliate against her husband, Joseph Wilson.
Supervised Release
After Bush commuted Libby's sentence, Walton questioned whether federal law allowed him to be put on supervised release if he hadn't first served time in prison.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and White House Counsel Fred Fielding filed court papers saying Libby still could be required to serve supervised release. Libby's lawyers said in court papers he ``does not take issue'' with Fielding's legal analysis.
Today, Walton said that with ``great reservation,'' he concluded that Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence while preserving the supervised release didn't violate the Constitution.
Bush had ``rewritten the statutory scheme'' to make it ``applicable to a situation that Congress clearly did not intend,'' the judge wrote.
Walton also wrote that if Libby violates any of the required conditions of his release, which ``this court has no reason to believe will occur,'' he could be ordered to spend the term in prison.
$250,000 Fine
Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment. Libby's lawyers didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
Libby paid a $250,000 fine and $400 special court assessment after Bush commuted his sentence.
During Libby's trial, syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who revealed Plame's identity in an article in July 2003, testified that her identity was provided to him by then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and confirmed by White House political adviser Karl Rove.
``I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person,'' Bush said today. ``I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, `I did it.' Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter?''
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