Trump’s Libby pardon a message to Mueller?

Vice President Cheney talks with aides I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Mary Matalin (National Archives)

Is President Trump telegraphing any messages to special counsel Robert Mueller in his pardon Friday of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney?

In 2003, none other than James Comey appointed a special counsel, Chicago prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate allegations that the identity of a covert CIA agent was leaked to the media for political purposes. Libby – ultimately Cheney, as Fitzgerald later made clear – was a target even though it later was discovered that the name of the agent, Valerie Plame, was leaked by State Department official Richard Armitage, which Fitzgerald knew early in the probe. Libby eventually was charged not with leaking, but with lying to the FBI.

Vice President Dick Cheney

So far, the only Trump administration official indicted in Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged Russia-Trump campaign

Art Moore

Art Moore

Leave a Reply

Recent Posts