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U.S. Judge Sets Trial Date for Former White House Official

Posted on: Saturday, 4 February 2006, 09:00 CST

U.S. judge sets trial date for former White House official

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge on Friday set the trial date for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, in the case involving the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity to news media.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton set the trial date for January 2007, to start with the selection of jury on Jan. 8, two months after the mid-term elections in November.

Walton said he did not like to have the case linger for long and had hoped to start the trial in September, but one of Libby's lawyers would be tied up for 10 weeks for another case that made that impractical.

Libby, 55, who appeared at the hearing, faced charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice, but has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Libby was indicted in October last year for his role in unmasking in the summer of 2003 the identify of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative, whose husband was critical of the Bush administration's prewar assessment of Iraq's weapons capabilities.

Libby, who had also served as national security adviser to Cheney and an assistant to President George W. Bush, resigned on the day he was indicted.

If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in jail and a 1.25 million U.S. dollar fine.

Bush's top political adviser and the White House's deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, was still under investigation in the case.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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