(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-21 10:20

WASHINGTON -- A former White House aid who has been held accountable for a CIA agent leaked identity was disbarred by a US court on Thursday.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former senior aid for Vice President Dick Cheney, was barred from practicing law in the District of Columbia for his perjury conviction in the leaked identity of former CIA female operatives, Valerie Plame Wilson, according to the US Court of Appeals in the capital.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former Chief of Staff to US Vice President Dick Cheney, leaves the courthouse with his attorney Theodore Wells (R) after being sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for his role in the CIA leak case at US District Court in Washington, June 5, 2007. [Agencies]

If a lawyer is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory, the court said.

Neither Libby or his lawyer has issued any comment on the court's decision.

Libby, 56, served as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser from 2001 to October 2005. He resigned after being indicted in the investigation into the leaked identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, whose husband criticized the Iraq war.

Libby was found guilty of obstructing the investigation and was sentenced to 30 months in jail in June, 2007. He was also fined US$250,000 and placed on probation for two years following his release from prison.

President George W. Bush, however, spared Libby from serving the 30-months jail term in last July, arguing the sentence was too "harsh" for Libby.

Defending Libby's innocence, his lawyer Theodore Wells announced last December that Libby decided to drop his appeal in the CIA leak case, which would only lead to a retrial lasting "even beyond the two years of supervised release," and cost more than the US$250,000 fine.