Scooter Libby

Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby (born August 22, 1950) is an American lawyer and former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney known for his high-profile indictment.

From 2001 to 2005, Libby held the offices of Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant to the President during the administration of President George W. Bush.

In October 2005, Libby resigned from all three government positions after he was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson."Indictment"
in ''United States of America vs. I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby"'', United States Department of Justice, October 28, 2005; accessed December 10, 2007. He was subsequently convicted of four counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements), making him the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair.

After Libby's failed appeal and a high-pressure lobbying campaign for Libby's full pardon by Vice President Cheney, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence of 30 months in federal prison, leaving the other parts of his sentence intact.Edwin Chen
"Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Term in CIA Leak Case (Update 2)"
''Bloomberg.com'', July 2, 2007, accessed July 2, 2007. As a consequence of his conviction in ''United States v. Libby'', Libby's license to practice law was suspended until being reinstated in 2016. Then-President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.

Personal history

Background and education

Libby was born to an affluent Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irving Lewis Leibovitz, was an investment banker. His father changed his family original surname from Leibovitz to Libby.

Libby graduated from the Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a junior boarding school, in 1965. The family lived in the Washington, D.C., region; Miami, Florida; and Connecticut prior to Libby's graduation from Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1968.

He and his elder brother, Hank, a retired tax lawyer, were the first in the family to graduate from college. Libby attended Yale University in New Haven, graduating ''magna cum laude'' in 1972. As ''Yale Daily News'' reporter Jack Mirkinson observes, "Even though he would eventually become a prominent Republican, Libby's political beginnings would not have pointed in that direction. He served as vice president of the Yale College Democrats and later campaigned for Michael Dukakis when he was running for governor of Massachusetts." According to Mirkinson: "Two particular Yale courses helped guide Libby's future endeavors. One of these was a creative writing course, which started Libby on a 20-year mission to complete a novel ... ater published as''The Apprentice'' ... nda political science class with professor and future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In an interview with author James Mann, Libby said Wolfowitz was one of his favorite professors, and their professional relationship did not end with the class." Wolfowitz became a significant mentor in his later professional life.

In 1975, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Libby received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Columbia Law School.

Marriage and family

Libby is married to Harriet Grant, whom he met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s, while he was a partner and she an associate in the law firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin: When he and Harriet became serious,' Dickstein partner Kenneth Simon wrote, 'she chose to leave the firm rather than maintain the awkward situation of an associate dating a partner. Libby and Grant married in the early 1990s, have a son and a daughter, and live in McLean, Virginia.

Name

Libby has been secretive about his full name. He was prosecuted as ''I. Lewis Libby, also known as "Scooter Libby".'' National Public Radio's ''Day to Day'' reported that the 1972 ''Yale Banner'' (the yearbook of Yale) gave his name as ''Irve Lewis Libby Jr.''; it is unclear if ''Irve'' is his given name, or if it is short for ''Irving'', as it was for his father. CBS, the BBC, and ''The New York Times''s John Tierney have all used this spelling of his first name. The ''Times''s Eric Schmitt spelled it ''Irv'', though he cited a phone interview with Libby's brother, and did not clarify if he had asked for a spelling.

At times, including in the ''Yale Banner'', and as documented in a federal directory cited by Ron Kampeas ''Jr.'' after his name. At other times, however, as listed in his federal indictment and ''United States v. Libby'', which give his alias as ''Scooter Libby'', there is no ''Jr.'' after Libby's name. The Columbia Alumni Association online directory lists him as I. Lewis Libby, with a first name of "I." and birth first name of "Irve".

Libby has also been secretive about the origin of his nickname ''Scooter''. The ''New York Times''s Eric Schmitt, citing the aforementioned interview with Libby's brother, wrote that "His nickname 'Scooter' derives from the day isfather watched him crawling in his crib and joked, 'He's a Scooter! In a February 2002 interview on ''Larry King Live'', King asked Libby specifically, "Where did 'Scooter' come from?"; Libby replied: "Oh, it goes way back to when I was a kid. Some people ask me if ... rosstalk... as you did earlier, if it's related to Phil Rizzuto icknamed 'The Scooter' I had the range but not the arm."

''The Apprentice''

Libby's only novel, ''The Apprentice'', about a group of travelers stranded in northern Japan in the winter of 1903, during a smallpox epidemic in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, was first published in a hardback edition by Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996, and reprinted as a trade paperback by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books in 2002. After Libby's indictment in the Plame affair grand jury investigation in 2005, St. Martin's Press reissued ''The Apprentice'' as a mass market paperback (Griffin imprint).Julian Borger
"Indicted Libby's Publishers Plan 25,000 Reprint of 'steamy' Novel"
''The Guardian'', November 11, 2005; accessed February 23, 2007.Associated Press
"Publisher to Reissue I. Lewis Libby's Novel"
''USA Today'', November 9, 2005; accessed July 3, 2007. An allegorical meditation on the legitimacy of concealed knowledge, ''The Apprentice'' has been described as "a thriller ... that includes references to bestiality, pedophilia and rape."

Law career

After earning his J.D. from Columbia in 1975, Libby joined the firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP. He was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976,"I. Lewis Libby" (Attorney ID No.: 23330
", ''The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania'' (public search facility), accessed June 5, 2007.Emma Schwartz
"Scooter Libby's Law License Loses Its Wheels"
''Legal Times'', April 6, 2007; accessed July 5, 2007.Richard S. Curtiss
"Neocon Corner: I. Lewis ('Scooter') Libby:
The Nexus of Washington's Neocon Network", ''Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'', September 2004: 18–20, accessed March 4, 2007. and to the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on May 19, 1978.D.C. Bar – Find a Member search facility
Libby is listed in the general "name" search (erroneously) as "I L Lewis Libby Jr." and in hyperlinked documents as "I. Lewis Libby Jr." Since 2007 he has been identified as "disbarred" and no longer a "member" of the D.C. Bar.The D.C. Bar revised its "Professional Rules of Conduct" on February 1, 2007, according to its "Bar News" section of its website; accessed June 5, 2007. On April 3, 2007, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals filed a
"Order"
("In the Matter of I. Lewis Libby Jr. ... Bar Registration No. 950758"), suspending Libby "immediately from the practice of law in the District of Columbia pending resolution of this matter n United States v. Libby, which the Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) received on April 4, 2007, directing it to "inform the Court if the matter is resolved without the necessity of further court action." In that order, "the Board directed the Bar Counsel to file a brief addressing whether ibby'scrimes inherently involve moral turpitude." In its brief, filed on April 24, 2007, entitle
"Statement of Bar Counsel"
the D.C. Bar stated that his crimes amounted to "moral turpitude" and recommended to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility that Libby "be disbarred pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)", which reads (in pertinent part): "When a member of the bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude ... the court shall, pending final determination of an appeal from the conviction, suspend the member of the bar from practice ... If a final judgment of conviction is certified to the court, the name of the member of the bar so convicted shall be struck from the roll of the members of the bar and such person shall thereafter cease to be a member." Pursuant to the policy on "Moral Turpitude" contained therein, it is also noted (n. 4) that Libby's ''"disbarment should be deemed to commence, for reinstatement purposes, on April 11, 2007, the date that efiled an affidavit in compliance with D.C. Bar R. XI, § 14(g)." The brief lists Libby's admission to practice law in that jurisdiction as May 19, 1978. At that time Libby's lawyers filed notification of his intention to appeal his conviction within ten days after his sentencing with the D.C. Bar, an appeal that he subsequently decided to drop (Cf. Apuzzo's account of December 10, 2007, op cit)''

Libby practiced law at Schnader for six years before joining the U.S. State Department policy planning staff, at the invitation of his former Yale professor, Paul Wolfowitz, in 1981. In 1985, returning to private practice, he joined the firm then known as Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin (now Dickstein Shapiro LLP), becoming a partner in 1986 and working there until 1989, when he left to work in the U.S. Defense Department, again under his former Yale professor Paul Wolfowitz, until January 1993."Leonard Garment and Four Other Mudge Rose Lawyers Join Washington, D.C. Office of Decert Price & Rhoads", ''PR Newswire'', November 20, 1995, Financial News, accessed via LexisNexis on July 16, 2007.

In 1993, returning to private legal practice from government, Libby became the managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon (formerly Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, and Alexander); in 1995, along with his Mudge Rose colleague, Leonard Garment––who had replaced John Dean as acting Special Counsel to U.S. President Richard Nixon for the last two years of his presidency dominated by Watergate, and who had hired Libby at Mudge Rose twenty years later––and three other lawyers from that firm, Libby joined the Washington, D.C., office of Dechert Price & Rhoads (now part of Dechert LLP), where he was a managing partner, a member of its litigation department, and chaired its Public Policy Practice Group. His work there was well regarded, with President Clinton recognizing Libby as one of three "distinguished Republican lawyers" who worked on the Marc Rich pardon case."My Reasons for the Pardons"
W. J. Clinton, ''The New York Times'', February 18, 2001.

In 2001 Libby left the firm to return to work again in government, as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff., ''United States Department of State'', July 2005; accessed April 18, 2008.

Fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who, along with his business partner Pincus Green, had been indicted of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran, and who, with Green, was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton, was a client whom Leonard Garment had hired Libby to help represent around the spring of 1985, after Rich and Green had first engaged Garment. Libby stopped representing Rich in the spring of 2000; early in March 2001, at a "contentious" Congressional hearing to review Clinton's pardons, Libby testified that he thought the prosecution's case against Rich "misconstrued the facts and the law". CNN
"GOP Lawyer: Facts 'misconstrued' in Rich Case"
'' CNN'' (Archives), March 2, 2001, accessed February 16, 2007. Jackson Hogan, Libby's roommate at Yale University, told '' U.S. News & World Report'''s Kenneth T. Walsh, He is intensely partisan ... in that if he is your counsel, he'll embrace your case and try to figure a way out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. According to a House Committee on Government Reform report, however, "The arguments made by Garment, illiam BradfordReynolds and Libby n their testimonyfocused on the claim that the SDNY was criminalizing what should have been a civil tax case. They did not make, compile, or in any other way lay the groundwork for, or make a case for a Presidential pardon. When former President Clinton stated that they 'reviewed and advocated' 'the case for the pardons,' he suggested that they were somehow involved in arguing that Rich and Green should receive pardons. This was completely untrue". (p. 162)

Bar suspension and disbarment

Before his indictment in ''United States v. Libby'', Libby had been a licensed lawyer, admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, although his Pennsylvania law license was inactive, and he had already been suspended from the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel (D.C. Bar) for non-payment of fees.District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility
"In the Matter of I. Lewis Libby Jr., D.C. App. No. 07-BG-179 Respondent
Bar Docket No. 372-05: A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Bar Registration No: 950758): Report and Recommendation of the Board on Professional Responsibility", May 14, 2007; accessed April 18, 2008. The Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recommended disbarment upon confirmation of his conviction, which Libby had initially indicated that he would appeal. Having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the D.C. Bar "disbarred impursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude", effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the D.C. Court of Appeals his disbarment if his conviction were not overturned on appeal.D.C. Bar
"Order"
("In the Matter of I. Lewis Libby, Jr. ... Bar Registration No. 950758"), filed April 3, 2007; accessed June 17, 2007. On December 10, 2007, Libby's lawyers announced his decision "to drop his appeal of his conviction in the CIA leak case".
Associated Press (December 10, 2007) ("President Bush could wipe away the conviction with a full pardon, something he has refused to rule out. heodoreWells ne of his lawyerssaid Monday ecember 10, 2007that he has not spoken to the White House about a pardon and does not know what Bush will do.") On March 20, 2008, following the dropping of his appeal of his conviction, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred Libby.District of Columbia Court of Appeals
"No. 07-BG-179: In Re I. Lewis Libby Jr., Respondent. A Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (Bar Registration No. 950758) On Report and Recommendation of the Board on Professional Responsibility (BD No. 372-05)"
submitted March 6, 2008, decided March 20, 2008, accessed April 18, 2008. As a result of the Court's ruling, "Libby will lose his license to practice or appear in court in Washington until at least 2012", and, "As is standard, he will probably lose any bar membership he holds in other states";Carol D. Leonnig

''The Washington Post'', p. A2, March 21, 2008 that is, in Pennsylvania.

Government public service and political career

In 1981, after working as a lawyer in the Philadelphia firm Schnader LLP, Libby accepted the invitation of his former Yale University political science professor and mentor Paul Wolfowitz to join the U.S. State Department's policy planning staff. From 1982 to 1985, Libby served as director of special projects in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1985 he received the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service from the United States Department of Defense, and he resigned from government to enter private legal practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, and Morin. In 1989, he went to work at the Pentagon, again under Wolfowitz, as principal deputy under-secretary for strategy and resources at the U.S. Defense Department.

During the George H. W. Bush administration, Libby was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy under secretary of defense for policy, serving from 1992 to 1993. In 1992 he also served as legal adviser for the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Libby co-authored the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–1999 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) with Wolfowitz for Dick Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense. In 1993 Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Defense Department and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department before resuming private legal practice first at Mudge Rose and then at Dechert.

Libby was part of a network of neo-conservatives known as the "Vulcans"—its other members included Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. While he was still a managing partner of Dechert Price & Rhoads, he was a signatory to the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century, et al.
"Statement of Principles"
June 3, 1997; accessed May 28, 2007. 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".NBC News News Service
"Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, a Quiet Force:
Vice President's Former Top Aide is Called 'Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney'", ''NBC News'', updated October 28, 2005; accessed February 17, 2007. Thomas Donnelly (Principal Author), et al. (Project for the New American Century and Gary Schmitt; full list of "Project Participants" – I. Lewis Libby Dechert Price & Rhoads" appears on page 90, followed by this note: "The above list of individuals participated in at least one project meeting or contributed a paper for discussion. The report is a product solely of the Project for the New American Century