Libby pleads not guilty

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of lying to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters in the CIA leak investigation, and his lawyer promised to fight the accusations in a trial that could bring government secrets into open court.

"With respect, your honor, I plead not guilty," I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton during his 10-minute arraignment, his first court appearance after being indicted last Friday.

Libby, 55, entered the courthouse on crutches because of a broken foot but came with a show of legal strength: Ted Wells and William Jeffress, two nationally prominent white-collar criminal-defense litigators he had hired.

Libby resigned as Cheney's chief of staff last Friday, the same day he was indicted on five felony counts, one of obstructing justice, two of perjury and two of making false statements in the nearly two-year investigation of whether officials illegally disclosed the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media.

"Mr. Libby today has pled not guilty to each and every count of the indictment," Wells said outside the courthouse. "He has declared to the world he is innocent. ... He has declared he plans to fight the charges."

A trial probably would require senior administration officials to testify about private conversations in summer 2003. It was then that the administration was trying to decide how to react to the public criticism of its rationale for invading Iraq leveled by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, and the name of his wife, Plame, was leaked to the media.

Wells, a partner in the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, is known for his courtroom prowess. He won acquittals for former Agriculture Secretary Michael Espy and former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan.

Jeffress, also a highly sought defense lawyer, won a plea bargain for a Rite Aid executive accused of accounting fraud in 2003 and acquittals for a series of public officials accused of vote buying, money laundering and perjury, many of them in Louisiana. The prosecution and the defense told Walton they expected a complex case that will be drawn out by pretrial evidentiary battles.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald warned that much of the evidence against Libby involves classified material involving national security. Libby's lawyers must get security clearances just to read the evidence Fitzgerald has gathered and to prepare their defense.

Jeffress said numerous First Amendment issues could produce "protracted litigation" and delay the case. Libby said Thursday that he waived his right to a speedy trial because of the complexities.