US president pardons ‘Scooter’ Libby

In this file photo taken on March 28, 2011 Lewis "Scooter" Libby, senior vice president of the Hudson Institute and former chief of Staff of former Vice President Dick Cheney, speaks during a discussion at the Hudson Institute March 29, 2011 in Washington.(AFP)

• Libby was convicted in 2007 of lying to investigators
• The White House said a witness against Libby later changed her version of events

President Donald Trump issued a full pardon Friday to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, suggesting he had been “treated unfairly” by a special counsel.
Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted in 2007 of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak of the covert identity of CIA officer 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.
“I don’t know Mr. Libby,” Trump said in a statement issued by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “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.”
The White House said a witness against Libby later changed her version of events.