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Democrat fury as Bush commutes Libby jail term

US President George W Bush has commuted the prison sentence of former top White House official Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice-President Dick Cheney, was originally jailed for two-and-a-half years for obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA agent whose husband criticised the Iraq war.

The original sentence outraged some Republicans and Mr Bush was under pressure to issue a pardon.

Instead Mr Bush has commuted the sentence, which means Libby still has to pay $US250,000 in fines but will escape a jail term.

"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr Libby is excessive," Mr Bush said in a statement.

"Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr Libby's sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison."

Mr Bush's decision has been condemned by the top Democrat in the US Senate.

"The President's decision to commute Mr Libby's sentence is disgraceful," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said in a first reaction to the move.

"Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war.

"Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone," he said in a statement.

"The Constitution gives President Bush the power to commute sentences, but history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own Vice-President's chief of staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law."