Former vice presidential chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby has dropped his appeal of his conviction in the Wilson-Plame leak case
Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence.
“We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby’s innocence,” attorney Theodore Wells said today. “However, the realities were that after five years of government service by Mr. Libby and several years of defending against this case, the burden on Mr. Libby and his young family of continuing to pursue his complete vindication are too great to ask them to bear.”
Translation: Libby didn’t have a pot to piss in, and even had he won a new trial he may have faced even greater legal jeopardy. And, of course, may not have a sympathetic president to get him off the hook.
As noted here last week, Representative Henry “Mr. Investigation” Waxman, the dogged Democrat from California, is still trying to pry loose Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s FBI files on the case.
Waxman wants the potentially explosive files for an ongoing Oversight and Government Reform investigation because they include information that Fitzgerald did not present to the grand jury — and therefore is not subject to secrecy laws — that subsequently indicted Libby.