[JURIST] The District of Columbia Court of Appeals [official website] Thursday issued a disbarment order [PDF text] for former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [JURIST news archive], banning him from practicing law in the District of Columbia. The DC Bar's Board on Professional Responsibility [official site] found that Libby's March 2007 conviction [JURIST report] on perjury and obstruction of justice charges constituted crimes involving moral turpitude per se, and recommended Libby's disbarment if an appeals court affirmed his conviction. In December, Libby announced that he had moved for voluntary dismissal of his appeal [JURIST report] before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, leading the district court to rule Thursday that disbarment is "mandatory" under DC Code Section 11-2503(a). Libby was licensed to practice in the District of Columbia in 1978. AP has more.

Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison [JURIST report] and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine in connection with the investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak [JURIST news archive]. US President George W. Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence [JURIST report] last July, saying that the jury sentence was "excessive." Libby is still required to pay the fine and is also subject to two years of probation. Bush has previously said that he may pardon Libby [JURIST report] before he leaves office, but did not include Libby in his 2007 year-end pardons [JURIST reports].