President Bush yesterday fuelled anger over his decision to spare Lewis “Scooter” Libby from jail by hinting that he could yet issue a full pardon for the former White House aide.

Amid growing criticism from Democrats over the announcement, which ensures that Vice-President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff will not serve a day of his 30-month prison term, Mr Bush defended his “considered judgment” that the punishment was severe.

He said that it was “the right decision to make and I stand by it”. Mr Bush, when asked if he was keeping the door open to a later pardon, he replied: “I rule nothing in and nothing out”.

Libby was convicted of perjury for lying to the FBI and prosecutors investigating how the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame was leaked to the press. He has emerged a martyr for the neoconservative cause and Mr Bush last week received a reminder that he could no longer take even the support of right-wing Republicans for granted.

His decision to commute Libby’s sentence was interpreted by political strategists as an effort to shore up his base on Capitol Hill before fresh efforts by Democrats to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, emphasised that Libby remains with a felony conviction on his record, two years’ probation, a $250,000 (£125,000) fine and probable loss of his legal career. “So this is hardly a slap on the wrist,” he said.

Joseph Wilson, Ms Plame’s husband, suggested that the President’s decision was a cover-up attempt to protect Mr Cheney and his own office.

Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential candidate, said: “This is exactly the kind of politics we must change to begin restoring the American people’s faith in government.”

Hillary Clinton said that the commuting of Libby’s sentence sent “the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice”. While many Republicans welcomed the decision, others said it was not enough. Mr Snow said: “The President is getting a pounding on the Right for not granting a full pardon.”

Executive pardons

–– Gerald Ford’s popularity never entirely recovered from the “full, free, and absolute pardon for all Watergate crimes” he granted his former boss Richard Nixon in 1974

–– In 1992 George Bush Sr pardoned Casper Weinberger, the former Defence Secretary, two weeks before his trial for alleged involvement in the sale of weapons to Iran as part of the Iran-Contra affair

–– The pardon of Marc Rich, below, by President Clinton in 2001, raised eyebrows across America’s political spectrum. The financier had fled to Switzerland in 1983 to avoid 51 counts of tax evasion, fraud, and violation of a trade embargo on Iran. Also in 2001, Mr Clinton pardoned his half-brother for a conviction for cocaine possession

Sources: whitehousehistory.org; Federation of American Scientists; US Department of Justice

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