Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, was sentenced to 30 months in prison yesterday for lying to an investigation about the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.

He was also fined $250,000 (£125,000) after being convicted in March of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators.

Libby, the highest-ranking official to be convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair, maintained his innocence throughout his trial but decided against giving evidence himself.

He broke his silence to make a brief appeal to the judge, saying: “It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life.” When Judge Reggie Walton delivered the sentence, which was harder than expected by legal commentators, Libby merely bowed his head.

“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,” said the judge, who added that he would decide next week whether Libby would be allowed to remain free while his lawyers appeal.

The case revolved around statements Libby made to the FBI and a grand jury during their inquiry into how the covert identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame was leaked. Although Mr Libby was not accused of being responsible for the disclosure, he was convicted of obstructing the inquiry by making false statements. He claimed that he had a faulty memory and had simply forgotten details of conversations about the CIA agent.

Plame’s name became public in a column by Robert Novak, a journalist, on July 14, 2003. Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had openly questioned the veracity of the Bush Administration’s case for invading Iraq. Disclosure of her identity was widely seen as an act of revenge.

Richard Armitage, the former Deputy Secretary of State, said that he told a reporter about Ms Plame, while Novak has pointed to another “senior administration official” – President Bush’s top adviser Karl Rove – as the second source for his information.

Mr Bush is now expected to come under concerted pressure to issue a pardon for Libby, who is viewed in neoconservative circles as a martyr – or at least a victim of a hostile liberal media and judicial establishment. The case is all the more incendiary because it reopens the issue of how the Bush Administration used intelligence information to justify the war in Iraq.

The White House issued a statement saying that Mr Bush felt terrible for Libby and his family but that he did not intend to intervene at present. If he was to issue a pardon for a man of whom he was known to be fond, it is most likely to be after all other legal avenues – including appeals have been exhausted – and when Mr Bush leaves office in January 2009.

Judge Walton released dozens of letters written to him by Libby’s supporters, including Donald Rumsfeld, the former Defence Secretary, John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, and Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State.

“My hope and prayer is that his outstanding record, his many contributions to our country and his value as a citizen, will be considered carefully,” Mr Rumsfeld wrote. Mr Cheney continued to voice support for his former chief of staff, although he did not write a letter. But the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald has spoken in court about “a cloud” hanging over the Vice-President as a consequence of the scandal.

Ms Plame and Mr Wilson plan to continue their legal battle by suing Libby, along with Mr Cheney and other Bush Administration officials, for violating their privacy rights.

Mr Nice Guy

One of our early ‘undisclosed location’ work trips coincided with Hallowe’en [and] the Cheney grandchildren were required to accompany us, yanked out of school and away from their much-anticipated night of trick-or-treating . . . Scooter flew into action, finding treats, creating costumes and arranging . . . Hallowe’en for the kids. When the little ones finally trotted off to bed, happy and full of candy and stories, Scooter went back to work, as was always the case, late into the night”

A letter in support of Libby signed jointly by Mary Matalin, another former aide to Dick Cheney, and her Democrat-supporting husband, James Carville

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