Washington
As with his controversial pardon last year of a former Arizona county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who had been held in contempt of court, Trump effectively thumbed his nose at the judiciary by pardoning I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The Justice Department was not involved in either case, officials said.
Trump acknowledged on Friday that he has no personal relationship with Libby, but the George W. Bush administration veteran has powerful allies in the conservative movement who lobbied Trump over many months. Trump concluded that Libby had been unfairly convicted in 2007 because of an overzealous prosecutor who investigated the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity and was deserving of a pardon.
“I don’t know Mr. Libby, but for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly,” the president said in a statement. “Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.”
A number of former Trump aides and associates have pleaded guilty to similar charges, such as lying to FBI investigators, and others are subjects of the wide-ranging Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump’s former lawyer, John Dowd, has floated the possibility of pardons for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort in the past, The Washington Post has reported. And Trump has asked questions about the use of pardons, White House aides say.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the pardon for Libby, who was chief of staff to Dick Cheney when he was vice president, had anything to do with the Russia investigation. Still, it sends a message that Trump could be willing to exercise the power of his office to help allies who are witnesses in the Mueller probe.
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.
Explaining Trump’s action, a White House statement noted that in 2015 one of the key witnesses against Libby, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, recanted her testimony, among other factors. The White House also said Libby’s past government service and his record since his conviction have been “similarly unblemished, and he continues to be held in high regard by his colleagues and peers.”
Still, Trump’s action inspired an outcry from Plame, who argued the president’s rationale was dishonest, and from many Democrats, who called the pardon an abuse of power.
“President Trump’s pardon of Scooter Libby makes clear his contempt for the rule of law,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. “This pardon sends a troubling signal to the President’s allies that obstructing justice will be rewarded.”
Trump rarely has used his power to pardon, but last August he granted clemency to Arpaio, a controversial figure who had been a Trump ally and campaign-trail companion. The former Arizona sheriff was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop detaining people simply because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.
Late last year, Trump commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, chief executive of a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa — a move cheered by Jewish leaders. And Trump this year granted a pardon to Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor convicted of unauthorized retention of national defense information. Saucier’s case was taken up by Fox News.
Margaret Love, a former pardon attorney for the U.S. government, said Trump has shown little interest in the ordinary pardon caseload that is prepared at the Justice Department, instead gravitating toward cases of personal political interest.
“All four of these cases are evidently ones he has cared about because of personal knowledge or some recommendation made to him outside the ordinary process,” Love said. She added that there is “no indication that the ordinary pardon caseload has attracted this president’s interest.”