What did Scooter Libby do?

Question

I'm very confused. What did he leak, why did he leak it ?

Answer 1

That's a GREAT question, and I wish more Americans would ask that question before they jump to conclusions.

Scooter Libby didn't leak ANYTHING. Scooter Libby was convicted of "obstruction of justice"...not being forthright and honest with the prosecutor and the FBI about who did and didn't leak information.

Someone else leaked information to the press a couple years ago about a woman who was working undercover for the CIA. Obviously, most undercover CIA people are undercover because if they weren't, their lives could be in danger. This woman's husband was critical of the Bush Administration, and there is a school of thought that says someone in the Bush Administration deliberately leaked the information to punish the man for criticizing the Bush Administration.

Scooter was definitely a scapegoat. I hope he doesn't have to do any time. He was following orders, and he didn't leak anything.

Thanks for asking if you didn't know. I wish more people would do that.

Answer 2

Lewis "Scooter" Libby is the one that was convicted concerning Valerie Plame leak who was a CIA employee. He was convicted of 2 counts of perjury, 1 count of obstructing justice and 1 of the 2 counts count of making a false statement to federal investigators. I think he is in trouble for those charges not for the leak itself. The truth is the Government has leaks all in it. Federal and especially local. Because there is a head hunt for anyone that likes G.W. Bush people like Scooter are targets...

Answer 3

He did what he was told to do, by Dick Cheney. Cheney did not like an article written by Valerie Planes husband which spoke out against the war. So he had Libby leak the fact that she was a cia agent. And also Libby lied about it on the stand.

Answer 4

He's accused of obstructing justice. He has a maximum of 25 years, so it couldn't have been a government leak. I don't know alot about law, but I can somewhat assure you that leaking the name of a CIA agent would result in a life sentence.

Answer 5

He got convicted of not remembering the exact day he told a reporter something three years after the fact.

Fitzgerald couldn't get anything on the actual "alleged" leak, so he had to justify all the millions spent somehow.

Answer 6

He wasn't convicted of leaking anything. He was convicted of obstructing a federal investigation by lying under oath.

But the word is that he was the one authorized to talk to the press about Joe Wilson, and he was the one who told Bob Woodward that Wilson's wife (Plame) was a CIA operative. And apparently, at the time that conversation took place, no one was supposed to know that.

But that isn't what he was convicted for. Careful not to confuse the issues.

Answer 7

It doesn't matter who leaked. Scooter was on trial for:

1) His name being Scooter.
2) Lying about who leaked what.

Answer 8

Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. (born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer who was convicted of four felony charges relating to the Plame affair on 6 March 2007. Before being indicted, he was the Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, and an assistant to President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2005.[1][2] Libby is the "the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair...."[3]

In his work as a private lawyer, Libby's most infamous client was billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, a fugitive accused of tax evasion, racketeering and breaking the US trade embargo on Iran. Libby represented Rich from 1985 until 2000, during which time Libby's firm received more than $2 million from Rich for representing him. Rich was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001, during the last hours of the Clinton administration, a pardon that drew heavy criticism from Republicans. At a Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby denied that Rich had violated any tax laws. [3]

Libby's lawyers announced that he would seek a new trial but that, if he does not get one, they will appeal Libby's conviction.[4][5]

The prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "said he didn't expect anyone else to be charged in the case. 'We're all going back to our day jobs,' he said."[5][6] Speaking to the media after the verdict, Fitzgerald reiterated his earlier claims that he had been unable to formulate charges against anyone in the CIA leak grand jury investigation because of the obstruction of justice by Libby.[7]

On October 28, 2005, Libby resigned his government position, hours after being indicted on five felony counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of perjury) by a U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel as part of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, a federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee's identity", a possible violation of criminal statutes, including the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 and Title 18, United States Code, Section 793.[8] Libby was not charged with violating those particular statutes.

As a result of his indictment by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation, Libby's criminal trial, United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby, began on January 16, 2007.

On March 6, 2007, Libby was found guilty on four of the five counts with which he was charged: two counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice, and one of making false statements to federal investigators. An appeal has been announced.[4]

Answer 9

Bush and Cheney told Scooter to leak the identity of a classified CIA WMD analyst. They then participated in a coverup and lied to the American people. This was done in retribution for debunking false intelligence about Iraqi "WMD" used to lie America into war.

Answer 10

He didn't leak anything. He lied to the FBI when they asked him who first told him that Valerie P. worked for the CIA.

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