Trump pardons Libby

President Donald Trump pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, on Friday. Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted of lying to investigators and obstructing justice in the 2003 case of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose covert identity was leaked. President George W. Bush later commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, but didn’t issue a pardon. No one was ever charged for the leak. Conservatives have criticized Libby’s prosecution as an example of an overzealous special counsel. Former FBI Director and then–Deputy Attorney General James Comey appointed the special counsel in that case, Patrick Fitzgerald. Trump said Friday, “for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly. Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.”