MATT APUZZO
WASHINGTON

A former top aide to US Vice President Dick Cheney was yesterday sentenced to 30 months in prison for lying and obstructing a CIA investigation.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby stood before a packed courtroom as a judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.

The highest-ranking US official convicted of a crime since the Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s, Libby was found guilty in March of lying to investigators about what he told reporters regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame. Her identity was leaked to reporters in 2003 after her husband criticised the Bush administration's war policies. Neither Libby nor anyone else has been charged for leaking her name.

"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," said Judge Reggie Walton.

Libby had denied the lying and obstruction charges that brought him down.

With letters of support from several former military commanders and White House and State Department officials, Libby had asked for no prison time. His supporters, including former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Marine Corps General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited a career in which Libby helped win the Cold War and the Gulf War.

"It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life," Libby told the judge.

Walton fined him $250,000 (£12,500) and placed him on probation for two years after his release from prison.

Sitting with Libby's wife Harriet Grant at the hearing were conservative commentators Mary Matalin, also a former aide to the vice president; and Victoria Toensing, a Justice Department official under the Reagan administration.

"He has fallen from public grace," said defence lawyer Theodore Wells. "It is a tragic fall, a tragic fall."

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had recommended a sentence of up to three years in prison.

"We need to make the statement that the truth matters ever so much," Fitzgerald said.

George W Bush, who was told of the sentence on his way to the G8 summit in Germany, felt for the Libby family but did not intend to intervene in the case, the White House said.

"The president said he felt terrible for the family, especially for his wife and kids," White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters.

"The president has not intervened so far in this or any other criminal matter, so he's going to decline to do so now as well," Perino said.

Bush has made no secret of his fondness for Libby who was a presidential aide as well as chief of staff to Cheney.

The president, who leaves office on Jan 20, 2009, has never ruled out a pardon for Libby.-AP