DOZENS of political and business leaders will ‘kick in’ to a multi million dollar fund to help extract U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff from perjury and obstruction charges.

Lewis Libby Junior has been charged with lying to F.B.I. agents and to a grand jury about how he learned a C.I.A operative had shared information with journalists.

In an illustration of just how politicized the U.S. bureaucracy is, Libby’s supporters include former C.I.A. director James Woolsey, and Ronald Reagan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick.

Ex-Republican Senators Fred Thompson and Alan Simpson, and former Republican presidential candidates Jack Kemp and Steve Forbes have also signed up.

"We've had an outpouring of support from a lot of people who realize that Scooter has served this administration admirably and selflessly for the last five years and want to help him," said fund proponent, Barbara Comstock, using Libby's nickname.

The drive aims to raise $US5 million, under the name Libby Legal Defense Trust.  Libby’s supporters will both organize the fund-raising drive, and donate money themselves.