CNN's Malveaux falsehood: “Libby is the only [Bush] administration official to be convicted of a crime”

Written by Kathleen Henehan

Published


In a March 7 report on former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby's March 6 conviction by a federal jury, CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux asserted that “Libby is the only administration official to be convicted of a crime -- lying during the CIA leak investigation.” In fact, since President Bush took office in 2001, several others in his administration have been convicted of criminal charges. From the March 7 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight:

MALVEAUX: As it stands now, Libby is the only administration official to be convicted of a crime -- lying during the CIA leak investigation.

Now all eyes are on Mr. Bush to see whether he'll issue a presidential pardon. While Mr. Bush and White House officials refuse to say, several Republican strategists believe the president will let the conviction stand.

As the weblog TPMmuckraker.com noted, several Bush administration officials have been convicted of crimes, including:

  • Lester Crawford, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to an October 17, 2006, Associated Press article, Crawford “abruptly resigned” from the FDA in September 2005 and pleaded guilty to charges of “conflict of interest and false reporting of information about stocks he owned in food, beverage and medical device companies he was in charge of regulating” in October 2006. According to the AP article, "[b]eginning in 2002, Crawford filed seven incorrect financial reports with a government ethics office and Congress, leading to the charges."
  • Brian J. Doyle, former deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. On September 19, 2006, Doyle “pleaded no contest to seven counts of using a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor,” according to The Ledger of Lakeland, Florida.
  • Claude A. Allen, former assistant to the president for domestic policy. Allen resigned in February 2006 after a January 2006 police investigation concerning multiple fraudulent returns to a Target store in Gaithersburg, Maryland. On August 4, 2006, Allen pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor theft.
  • David H. Safavian, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration. Safavian was found guilty of lying and obstructing justice in June 2006. According to a June 21, 2006, article in The Washington Post, Safavian resigned “days before” his September 2005 arrest. The Post added that he “was convicted in U.S. District Court ... of covering up his many efforts to assist [disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack] Abramoff in acquiring two properties controlled by the GSA, and also of concealing facts about a lavish weeklong golf trip he took with Abramoff to Scotland and London in the summer of 2002.”
  • John T. Korsmo, former chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board. On April 7, 2005, Korsmo "pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which oversees the Finance Board, and the Inspector General for the Finance Board." The Senate committee and inspector general were investigating Korsmo's participation in an October 2002 congressional fundraising event.

CNN reporters have not mentioned any of these former officials in the context of the Libby conviction.