Cheney: Bush should have pardoned Libby

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney says former President George W. Bush should have pardoned a White House aid convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Cheney told The Weekly Standard his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was a "victim of a serious miscarriage of justice" when he was convicted for his role in the leak of a CIA agent's identity, the magazine said Thursday.

"Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and honorable men I've ever known," Cheney said. "He's been an outstanding public servant throughout his career. He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon. Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision."

Libby was convicted in 2007 in connection with leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Bush in July 2007 commuted Libby's two and a half year prison sentence in the case.

Many of Bush's strongest supporters were angered by the decision not to pardon Libby, the Standard said.

The report quoted a longtime Bush defender and Libby sympathizer as saying she was "disgusted." Another Bush supporter called the former president "dishonorable" and yet another compared the decision to leaving a soldier behind on the battlefield.