Bush's Libby pardon "accessory to obstruction of justice"

July 3, 2007

Washington, DC - Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the husband of CIA agent Valerie Plame who was outed in a concerted effort by President Bush, vice-president Cheney, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, said Tuesday he's not surprised at President Bush's decision to commute the 30-month prison term of former White House aide Libby.

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the husband of CIA agent Valerie Plame who was outed in a concerted effort by President Bush, vice-president Cheney, and Lewis Scooter Libby, said Tuesday he's not surprised at President Bush's decision to commute the 30-month prison term of former White House aide Libby.

"I think this administration has demonstrated time and time again it is corrupt from the top to the bottom," Wilson said on CNN's "American Morning." "I think the president short-circuited the rule of law and the system of justice."

Bush announced Monday he was commuting what he called the "excessive" sentence that Libby received after being convicted of lying to a grand jury and federal agents probing the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

While the president was within his authority to issue such a commutation, Wilson said the move now extends a cloud of suspicion over Bush's office.

"I think there is a very real suspicion now that the president himself is an accessory to obstruction of justice in this matter," Wilson said from his home in Santa Fe, N.M.

"The president, by commuting Mr. Libby's sentence, guaranteed that he will be under no incentive whatsoever to tell the truth to the special prosecutor who has said repeatedly there remains a cloud over the office of the vice president," Wilson added.