White House won't rule out presidential pardon for Libby

2005-11-09 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- The White House refused Tuesday to rule out a presidential pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former vice presidential aide indicted for allegedly obstructing a grand jury investigation into the White House unmasking of a secret CIA officer.

Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan left the door open for a possible pardon by President Bush after Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate Democratic leader, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, House Democratic leader, called for Bush to publicly rule out a step.

Libby, 55, the former chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney who helped market the case for war in Iraq, faces as much as 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines if convicted on all five felony charges stemming from alleged efforts to impede a grand jury investigation into the unmasking of secret CIA agent Valerie Wilson, who also went by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.

Retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson has accused the White House of leaking his wife's undercover identity to retaliate against his criticism of the Bush administration for using what he said was twisted intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in order to justify invading Iraq in 2003.

McClellan, asked twice whether Bush would pledge not to pardon Libby, declined to discuss "an ongoing legal proceeding."

"I'm not going to speculate about any matters relating to it," McClellan said, adding: "There is a legal proceeding that is going on relating to that individual. Under our system, there is a presumption of innocence, and we're not going to comment on it while it is continuing. And I'm not going to -- certainly not going to -- speculate about it as well."