PerjuryPenalty 30 Months in prison and a $250,000 fine
Occupation former Lawyer While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, Libby was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) . He joined Wolfowitz, PNAC co-founders William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and other "Project Participants" in developing the PNAC's September 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century". As quoted in Paul Reynolds' BBC News report, David Rothkopf states:
Their [The Project for the New American Century's] signal enterprise was the invasion of Iraq and their failure to produce results is clear. Precisely the opposite has happened. The US use of force has been seen as doing wrong and as inflaming a region that has been less than susceptible to democracy. Their plan has fallen on hard times. There were flaws in the conception and horrendously bad execution. The neo-cons have been undone by their own ideas and the incompetence of the Bush administration." In 2003 and 2004, intense speculation about Libby centered on the possibility that he may have been the administration official who "leaked" the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA employee whose identity was classified. This was a punishment from the Bush administration, who were very upset with Plame's husband, J. Wilson, who confirmed, and made very public the complete falsehood spoken when the Bush administration claimed that Iraq was attempting to secure nuclear "yellowcake" from the country of Niger. Of course, Wilson was only the third in succession of experts who confirmed the lie, which was told in a vain attempt to justify the invasion, and resulting war in Iraq, a war which has fanned the flames of terrorism, and positioned our country in a failing civil war, spend untold billions of dollars, and killed over 3,000 U.S. troops, not to mention the thousand upon thousands of Iraqi's.
Pursuant to the grand jury investigation, Libby told FBI investigators that he first heard of Plame's CIA employment from journalist Tim Russert and that he had forgotten that Vice President Dick Cheney had already told him that information. The indictments charge that all of these alleged statements of Libby's were false, in that Libby had numerous conversations about Plame's CIA employment before speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Plame's CIA employment; Libby knew for a certainty that Plame was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that Plame worked for the CIA without any disclaimer that he did not know whether this was true or not. The "false statements" charges in the Libby indictment stem from its allegation that he made these claims to the FBI; the "perjury" charges, from the allegation that he repeated these claims to the grand jury; and the "obstruction" charge, from the allegation that Libby made these statements in an effort to prevent Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation from uncovering the truth. Noting that "Libby is the first sitting White House official to be indicted in 130 years," CNN News also reported that "At the beginning of Thursday's hearing, Walton told the court that he had received 'harassing' and 'hateful' messages. 'In the interest of full disclosure, I have received a number of harassing, angry and mean-spirited phone calls and messages. Some wishing bad things on me and my family," the judge said. 'Those types of things will have no impact. ... I initially threw them away, but then there were more, some that were more hateful,' Walton said. 'They are being kept." Libby is also named as a party in an on-going civil suit that Valerie E. Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, have brought against Libby, Vice President Cheney, President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
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