President George W. Bush on Tuesday refused to rule out an eventual pardon for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
"As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out," the president said a day after commuting Libby's 2 1/2 year prison term in the CIA leak case.
Bush said he had weighed his decision carefully to erase prison time for Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. He said the jury's conviction of Libby should stand but that the 30-month prison term was too severe.
"I made a judgment, a considered judgment," the president said. "I stand by it." At the same time, he left the door open for the possibility of a pardon later.
Bush spoke to reporters after visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
