July 2, 2007 (LPAC)--Dick Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby today lost his emergency appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in which he was asking to remain free on bail while the Appeals Court considers his appeal of his conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame Wilson leak case. The decision was unanimous, from a three-judge panel including two Republican appointees. The judges that make up the panel are very familiar with the Plame case and obviously take it very seriously: they had ruled in early 2005 that reporters Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matt Cooper of CBS must testify to the grand jury investigating the leak, despite their claims of journalistic privilege.

Libby is likely to be ordered to report to prison within a month, at which point he will simply become known as inmate 28301-016.