President Donald Trump is reportedly ready to pardon former Vice President Dick Cheney’s onetime chief of staff, Scooter Libby, who was convicted in 2007 of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice.
ABC News reported Trump has already signed off on a pardon — and had been considering it for several months.
Libby's 30-month sentence in the case relating to the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a former covert CIA operative, was commuted by then-President George W. Bush, ABC News noted. It spared him prison time, but did not pardon him.
After Libby claimed he could not have been the source of the Plame leak, people came forward to testify they learned of her identity from Libby before when he said he had first received the information, the news outlet noted.
At trial, Libby claimed to have simply forgotten he actually learned about the identity from Cheney a month before he said he had.
Since the conviction, Libby has had his law license restored and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell restored his voting rights in 2013, ABC News reported.
The controversial pardon would be Trump's second.
Trump pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio after he was found guilty in last July on criminal contempt charges stemming from his refusal to stop imprisoning suspected undocumented immigrants.