WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's conviction capped a four-year, politically charged investigation but did not seal Libby's fate or resolve some of the lingering questions in the CIA leak case.
Once the closest adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. He was the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra arms and money affair two decades ago.
The trial revealed Cheney's eagerness to discredit a war critic, the Bush administration's policies on talking to reporters and its strategies for dealing with a crisis.
But the case offered little new information about whether President Bush was involved or whether he authorized any leaks. Defense attorneys never delivered Cheney or Libby to the witness stand as promised to discuss the White House effort to undermine the credibility of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a campaign that resulted in the disclosure of his wife Valerie Plame's job at the CIA.
Libby's attorneys offered few details about a supposed White House conspiracy to protect Bush adviser Karl Rove from prosecution.
It also was never explained why former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who originally leaked Plame's identity, was never charged.
Now that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says his investigation is complete, those questions are likely to go unanswered. Nobody will be charged with actually leaking Plame's identity. Libby was convicted of lying to cover up his conversations about Plame.
"The results are actually sad," Fitzgerald told reporters after the federal jury's verdict. "It's sad that we had a situation where a high-level official person who worked in the office of the vice president obstructed justice and lied under oath. We wish that it had not happened, but it did."
Juror Denis Collins on Wednesday summed up the dilemma that he and his associates faced behind closed doors.
"There was a frustration that we were trying someone for telling a lie apparently about an event that never became important enough to file charges anywhere else," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I would hope that the message sent by this jury shouldn't be that big a message," he said.
Libby's fate remains unclear. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced June 5, but his federal sentencing guidelines are much lower. His lawyers promised to ask for a new trial and said they'll ask that Libby remain free while any appeals are fought.
"We have every confidence Mr. Libby ultimately will be vindicated," defense attorney Theodore Wells said. He said Libby was "totally innocent and that he did not do anything wrong."
And then there's the lingering question of whether Bush will pardon Libby, as the president's father did in 1992 for former Reagan administration officials caught up in the scandal that grew out of arms sales to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., immediately called on Bush not to pardon Libby. The White House wouldn't say what the president might do.
"I'm aware of no such request for a pardon," presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "As is afforded to all Americans, there is a process that is followed in which to apply for a pardon. And I don't think that speculating on a wildly hypothetical situation at this time is appropriate."
In a written statement, Cheney called the verdict disappointing and said he was saddened for Libby and his family too. "As I have said before, Scooter has served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction through many years of public service."
The trial centered on several weeks in mid-2003, when Wilson began discussing publicly a report he drafted that contradicted a key Bush administration reason for invading Iraq. Cheney and Libby were eager to undercut Wilson, and several witnesses recalled discussing Wilson's wife with Libby.
Libby told investigators that he forgot all about those conversations and was surprised to learn Plame worked for the CIA from NBC newsman Tim Russert. Fitzgerald said that was a convenient story concocted to shield Libby from prosecution for mishandling classified information. Russert testified they never discussed Plame.
Libby was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury to the grand jury and one count of lying to the FBI. He was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI.
"We cannot tolerate perjury. Truth is what drives our judicial system. If people don't tell the truth, the system cannot work," Fitzgerald said outside court Tuesday. "Having a high-level official lie under oath is just something that can never be accepted."
Jurors decided Libby could simply not be believed. It was not plausible, they said, that Libby forgot nine conversations about Plame.
"There were good managerial type people on this jury who took everything apart and put it in the right place," Collins said. "After that, it wasn't a matter of opinion. It was just there."
Collins said he was intrigued when Wells raised the idea that Libby was being made a scapegoat for Rove.
"There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury. It was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here? Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?'" Collins said. "I'm not saying we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy."
Another juror, Jeff Comer, said he can only recall that idea coming up once.
Though the criminal case is over, Wilson and Plame have a civil lawsuit pending against Libby, Cheney, Armitage and others. Wilson praised the Libby verdict.
"Convicting him of perjury was like convicting Al Capone of tax evasion or Alger Hiss of perjury," Wilson said. "It doesn't mean they were not guilty of other crimes."
