Bush spares Libby from prison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday spared former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison, enraging Democrats who accused Bush of abusing power in a case that has fueled debate over the Iraq war.

Stalwart conservatives in Bush's Republican party had pressured him to pardon Libby -- Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff -- and saw him as the victim of an overly zealous prosecutor. He was sentenced last month to 2-1/2 years in prison for obstructing a CIA leak probe and his imprisonment was imminent.

Democrats swiftly condemned Bush's decision. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called it "disgraceful" and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont said it was "emblematic of a White House that sees itself as being above the law."

Bush stopped short of an outright pardon, leaving intact a $250,000 fine and Libby's two-years' probation. Libby still plans to appeal the conviction, his lawyer William Jeffress said.

"I respect the jury's verdict," Bush said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison."

"HISTORY WILL JUDGE HIM HARSHLY"

Conservatives, who lately have been at odds with Bush over his support for an immigration overhaul they called an amnesty for illegal immigrants, applauded Bush's decision.

"While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the president's decision. This will allow a good a man who has done a lot for his country to resume his life," said former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, a likely 2008 presidential candidate who helped raise money for Libby's defense.

Libby, 56, was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, whose husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had criticized the Iraq war.

Libby was not convicted of leaking Plame's identity to the media. But Plame said the unmasking destroyed her career and was retaliation after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to build its case for the Iraq war which most Americans now oppose.

Democrats who have launched several investigations into the Bush administration were livid at the scrapping of Libby's prison sentence.

"The Constitution gives President Bush the power to commute sentences, but history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own vice president's chief of staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law," Reid said.

Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, running for his party's presidential nomination, called on Americans "to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law."

"George Bush and his cronies think they are above the law and the rest of us live with the consequences. The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today," said former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat running for president.

But a senior Republican in the House of Representatives, Roy Blunt of Missouri, applauded Bush.

"The prison sentence was overly harsh and the punishment did not fit the crime. The sentence was based on charges that had nothing to do with the leak of the identity of a CIA operative," Blunt said.

The announcement about Libby came at the start of the Independence Day holiday week with Congress in recess and at the end of a day in which the news was dominated by Bush's talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bush, who has granted few pardons as president, issued a lengthy statement defending his move as an attempt to split the difference between critics who thought the punishment did not fit the crime and those who felt Libby deserved what he got because he lied under oath.

A legal expert said Bush gave Libby special treatment.

"This is a complete departure from the usual procedures for pardons. Scooter Libby is getting something that prisoners would die for," legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told CNN.