WASHINGTON – Lurking in the background of a possible perjury conviction this week of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby is the potential for an eventual presidential pardon.

A reporter, in fact, tried to ask President Bush last week whether a pardon for Libby was under consideration. “Not gonna talk about it,” the president snapped, before the question was even finished.

Libby faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.2 million in fines if he’s found guilty of lying about outing CIA spy Valerie Plame and obstructing justice. Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday, and deliberations will begin shortly afterward.

Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff before the indictment forced him to resign, is familiar with presidential pardons.

He was a lawyer in private practice when he represented billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who was pardoned in the final hours of Bill Clinton’s presidency. The pardon created a political furor, but Libby defended it, saying a president’s ability to wipe away a conviction with the stroke of his pen is “virtually unfettered.”

Rich faced 300 years in prison for dodging taxes on profits from an oil-pricing scheme amid the 1973 oil crisis. He was also hit for dealing with Iran during the U.S. Embassy hostage ordeal.

Libby insisted he had no role in asking Clinton for the Rich pardon – but his earlier efforts on Rich’s behalf laid the legal groundwork for the request.

Libby told a House panel probing Clinton’s pardons in 2001 that the president can pardon “without consulting with anyone, and it would not be questioned.”

He also cautioned, however, that the president should pardon only if he has “all the possible information that would be relevant to him” in a vetting process.

Libby, who had just joined the Bush administration at the time of his House testimony, added, “President Bush has stated, sir, that … he would exercise (pardon power) fairly and with high standards.”