Former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been sentenced to 30 months behind bars for lying and obstructing a probe into the leaked identity of a CIA operative.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom on Tuesday as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.
"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem,'' U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said.
In March, Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to the FBI in the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
CIA analyst Valerie Plame's identity was leaked in 2003 after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to build its case for the war in Iraq.
Judge Reggie Walton also imposed a fine of $250,000 and two years probation.
Libby maintains his innocence and his lawyers were expected to ask Walton to suspend the sentence while they appeal the case.
"It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life,'' Libby said in brief remarks to the judge.
However, it was not immediately clear whether Libby would remain free pending appeal.
Prosecutors were asking the court to sentence Libby to three years in prison.
"We need to make the statement that the truth matters ever so much,'' special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said.
With letters of support from several former military commanders and White House and State Department officials, Libby asked for no jail time.
"But the speculation is that he is not going to spend anytime in jail whatsoever," CTV's Joy Malbon reported from Washington.
"And that the vice-president -- who values Scooter Libby and his service and his friendship -- will more than likely ask president Bush at the end of his presidency to pardon him," she said.
During the trial, prosecutors said Libby made up a story to save his job by telling investigators he'd forgotten that Cheney told him about the CIA status of Wilson's wife. Cheney had passed the information to Libby more than a month before Plame's identity was outed by conservative columnist Robert Novak.
But Libby's defence team contended that he learned about Plame from Cheney, put it out of his mind, then learned it again a month later from NBC newsman Tim Russert.
Russert testified, however, that he never told Libby about Wilson's wife.
Libby said that anything he told reporters about Plame was just speculation and rumours - and not official government information.
With files from The Associated Press
