WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement Friday that Trump has issued the pardon.
Libby is Cheney’s former chief of staff. He was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
President George W. Bush later commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, but didn’t issue a pardon despite intense pressure from Cheney. No one was ever charged with the leak.
Trump says in the statement that he does not know Libby, but “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.”
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