Trump Has Reportedly Signed Off on Pardoning Ex-Dick Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby

Remember Scooter Libby? He was the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice in 2007 over the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. At the time, President George W. Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence but did not pardon him.

Well, President Donald Trump is set to change all that.

According to ABC News, the president has already signed off on a pardon for Libby and has been considering it for several months. As ABC reported, many conservatives have been pushing for Libby’s pardon, including husband-wife lawyer team Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, who were at one point supposed to join Trump’s legal team.

This wouldn’t be Trump’s first controversial pardon, Last year, the president gave ex-Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio a pardon after Arpaio was found guilty of contempt over his refusal to stop detaining suspected undocumented immigrants.

Some media folks had these immediate thoughts on Twitter:

Trump is going full neocon in this moment – Bolton, Lerner, Scooter Libby pardon …. https://t.co/WDNS6cPfob

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2018

A conviction that stemmed from the last special counsel — who was appointed by Comey. https://t.co/0Uui7pcPGx

— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 13, 2018

Reminder: Scooter Libby was convicted of four felonies in 2007 (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements). https://t.co/xN3sG8TbVU

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 13, 2018

Scooter Libby replaces John Kelly

— Joe (@JoeTacopino) April 13, 2018

Trump pardoning Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI and for obstruction of justice to prep us for his pardons of Michael Flynn and rest of Trump's corrupt cabal

— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) April 13, 2018

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona