US:Vice-president Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has been sentenced to two-and-a-half-years in prison and fined $250,000 (€185,000) for lying about his role in the leaking of a CIA officer's identity.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby had asked the court to consider his record of public service and not to send him to jail, but Judge Reggie Walton, who was appointed by the Bush administration, said the evidence overwhelmingly proved Libby's guilt.
"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," the judge said.
The highest-ranking official to be jailed in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, Libby was convicted in March of lying under oath and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity. The leak followed the publication of an article by Ms Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, which criticised the way the administration made the case for the Iraq War. A protégé of former deputy defence secretary and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, Libby played a central role in making the case for war in Iraq.
As the top aide to Mr Cheney, he was involved in almost every major decision of the administration before he stepped down in 2005.
Mr Cheney yesterday paid tribute to his former aide. "I have always considered him to be a man of the highest intellect, judgment and personal integrity -a man fully committed to protecting the vital security interests of the United States and its citizens. Scooter is also a friend, and I remain deeply saddened by this tragedy and its effect on his wife, Harriet, and their young children.
"The defence has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man," the vice-president said.
The White House said yesterday that president George Bush, in Germany for the G8 summit, felt "terrible" for Libby and his family but suggested he had no immediate plans to issue a pardon. "The president has not intervened so far in this or any other criminal matter, so he's going to decline to do so now as well," deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
Judge Walton said he saw no reason why Libby should remain free pending an appeal against the sentence but he agreed to consider submissions from the defence before setting a date for the former official to report to prison. Libby's supporters were taken aback by the sentence, which was twice as long as that recommended by probation officers and was just short of the three years demanded by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
"He has fallen from public grace. It is a tragic fall, a tragic fall," defence attorney Theodore Wells said.
The judge said he would release more than 150 letters he received in support of Libby, including pleas for a lenient sentence from former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace; former secretary of state Henry Kissinger; and former UN ambassador John Bolton.
Libby first heard about Ms Plame's CIA role in June 2003 from Mr Cheney, who was annoyed by her husband's criticism but Libby told investigators that he first received the information from NBC journalist Tim Russert.
Libby was not charged with leaking Ms Plame's identity, nor were the two initial sources of the leak - former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and White House political adviser Karl Rove.
Libby's lawyers argued during his trial that he was being made a scapegoat for the misdeeds of other White House figures.
Mr Fitzgerald said, however, that it was important to punish Libby for obstructing the investigation into the leak.
