Clintons Accused Of Hypocrisy by The White House

Still, the Clintons sought to draw a distinction between Bill Clinton's clemency actions and Bush's decision last week to commute Libby's jail term.

"I think the facts were different. I think there are guidelines for what happens when somebody is convicted," the former president said on WHO Radio in Des Moines. "You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy; they believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle."

The sparring went on as Libby quietly paid his fine in Washington. Although a fund established to finance his defense against the criminal charges raised more than $5 million for his legal fees, his lead attorney, Theodore V. Wells Jr., said yesterday that the $250,000 for the fine came entirely from his client's personal funds. "No monies from his defense fund were used," Wells said.

A copy of the check was posted on the court docket yesterday but removed later in the afternoon by clerks who said that was done in error. It showed the payment was made by a cashier's check drawn Monday from a McLean branch of Bank of America. The check, which covered the fine and a routine $400 fee, was hand-delivered by one of Libby's attorneys yesterday to the clerk's office of U.S. District Court in Washington, according to court officials.

According to Wells, Libby withdrew the funds to pay the fine before he became aware that the president would intervene on Monday to keep him out of prison. He said the timing stemmed from a court hearing in mid-June, during which U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who presided over Libby's trial, ruled that Libby could not remain free while he pursued appeals of the four felonies on which he was convicted. The same day, the court ordered Libby to pay the fine immediately.

Wells said yesterday that probation officials on Monday set a more precise deadline for paying the fine by yesterday, after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion upholding the trial judge's ruling that Libby must report to prison while his case was on appeal.

Several lawyers specializing in ethics and campaigns said that a legal defense trust, such as Libby's, does not automatically preclude the use of money it raised to pay a fine in a criminal case, unless the trust was set up with rules to prohibit it.

Libby has not worked at the White House, where he had a $160,000 salary as the top aide to Cheney and an expert on national security matters, since his indictment in October 2005. Since January 2006, he has held a position as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank focusing on foreign policy, and sources have said his income there has at least matched his White House pay.

Staff writer John Solomon contributed to this report.