FACTBOX: Republican candidates on possible pardon for Libby
(Reuters) - In a debate on Tuesday, Republican U.S. presidential candidates largely skirted the issue of whether President George W. Bush should pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby has been sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison in a case involving the leak of the name of a covert CIA agent whose husband opposed the administration's justification for going to war in Iraq.
Here are some of their responses.
FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI:
"I recommended over a thousand pardons to President Reagan when I was associate attorney general. I would see if it fit the criteria for pardon. I'd wait for the appeal. I think what the judge did today argues more in favor of a pardon."
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY:
"This is one of those situations where I go back to my record as governor. I didn't pardon anybody as governor, because I didn't want to overturn a jury."
ARIZONA SEN. JOHN MCCAIN:
"He's going through an appeal process. We've got to see what happens here."
FORMER WISCONSIN GOV. TOMMY THOMPSON:
"Bill Clinton committed perjury at a grand jury, lost his law license. Scooter Libby got 30 months. To me, it's not fair at all. But I would make sure the appeal was done properly, and then I would examine the record."
KANSAS SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, the only candidate to say Libby should be pardoned:
"Yes. The basic crime here didn't happen."
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