Posted on 06/07/2007 11:13:13 AM PDT by AuntB
Nearly everybody—everybody in my email bag, I mean—agrees with me in liking Duncan Hunter's turning 'round the question about pardoning the Libby guy. How about pardoning Compean & Ramos, asked Hunter? (Those are the Border Patrol agents railroaded into 10-year jail sentences by Bush and Gonzales for having too vigorously pursued a Mexican drug smuggler.) Hoo-ah, said I.
Except that here's one dissident chiding me for not standing up for Libby. Isn't injustice injustice? he asks. Shouldn't I be equally concerned about all miscarriages of justice, no matter who is the victim?
Well, maybe I should, but I'm not, and neither are you. I think it's an understood feature of Anglosphere politics that the very high rewards of office go with some nonzero risk of getting thrown in jail on charges trumped up by your opponents. After all, it happened to Britain's very first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole. (He actually did a spell as a prisoner in the Tower of London!)
Libby's operated near the top of the greasy pole. He has plenty of powerful friends. He's never going to be in want of a few cushy 100K directorship sinecures, or the odd 20K speaking engagement. You won't be seeing him on the supermarket line paying with food stamps. He's played the High Game of national politics, and "Go to jail" is one of the cards you sometimes draw in that game. No big deal.
For little guys like Compean and Ramos, though, jail time is a life killer. No 100K directorships for them. They were disgracefully treated by an administration that often seems to want the approval of the Mexican narco-elites more than the respect & admiration of its own citizens. They should get pardons.
Libby? Heck, he'll be all right, and a taste of low life might educate him some.
Libby didn’t get railroaded. He might have been innocent of any real wrongdoing, but he failed to convince a single one of 12 jurors agreed to by his own defense team, and his defense managed to convince a judge that he should be sentenced to MORE than the standard guidelines.
What did he do to cast doubt on his guilt? The charges were simple enough — that he lied to people about what he had said in conversations.
How do you cast doubt on that? Well, you tell your side, and then argue he-said/she-said. You can also present evidence that the other side doesn’t remember things well.
Libby did almost ALL of that. Except he didn’t do the most important part. He didn’t tell HIS side.
He asked the jury to simply BELIEVE that 3 journalists that are (unfortunately) trusted voices were all lying about conversations, simply because their own stories were not believable.
Let me repeat — to find Libby innocent, 12 jurors had to believe that, on its face, the stories by all the OTHER poeple in the conversations simply COULD NOT BE true, were UNBELIEVABLE.
Because Libby NEVER testified to what was said in those conversations, he couldn’t argue that HE was MORE believable than they were. He couldn’t offer any alternative explanation for the conversations.
But the stories told were NOT unbelievable. It wasn’t impossible that Libby COULD have told those people what he is said to have told them. And without his own testimony hat he did NOT tell them, the jurors really didn’t have a hard time deciding that Tim Russert probably wouldn’t just make up a story, much less that the story he made up couldn’t possibly be true, or was probably not true.
Experts in the law and who can’t be labeled has yahoos have read the transcript of their trial and say also they are not guilty.
To first put these agents in open popoulation and were beat up and now they are in solitary confinement 23 hr. a day, enough already.
Derb writes smart but reads dumb.
You can't possibly be that ignorant.
But for the Ultras because it fits their political Dogma they simply scream they are innocent and should be pardoned. Sorry the Rule of Law should not simply be over turned to gratify the emotional whimsy of a bunch of screaming Know Nothings.
There's a lot of hate and anger in those words, not to mention name-calling.
btw... what is an "Ultra"?
Ramos/Compean Ping!
Highlights from the court docket, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
5/21/07 Appellant’s Brief filed by Appellant Ignacio Ramos in 06-51489.
5/21/07 Motion filed by Appellant Ignacio Ramos in 06-51489 to file brief in excess of the word count limitation but not to exceed 27,692 words.
5/29/07
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Ted Poe in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Walter B Jones in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Virgil H Goode in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by Gun Owners Foundation in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by US Border Control in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by US Border Foundation in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by Conservative Leg Def in 06-51489
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Ted Poe in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Walter B Jones in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by Congressman Virgil H Goode in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by Gun Owners Foundation in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by US Border Control in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by US Border Foundation in 06-51490
Amicus Curiae filed by Conservative Leg Def in 06-51490
6/6/07
Amicus curiae brief filed by Washington Legal Foundation in 06-51489
Amicus curiae brief filed by Washington Legal Foundation in 06-51490
6/6/07
Order filed granting motion of appellant Ignacio Ramos to file brief in excess of the word count limitation but not to exceed 27,692 words
Thanks for the backup for your information.
It looks like many respectable and knowledgeable people
have put much time on the issue of the Mexican-American Border Agents and their Appeals.
I’m happy to see all of the support for R&C and their appeal.
It looks like we won’t know anything until the end of summer, or later, as all of it is under seal.
See post #26--they are getting some welcomed support
No need to “pocket veto” the Fence Bill. They did the next best thing by putting a provision in the bill that gives the top brass at the DHS the discretionary power to use the funds that are supposedly earmarked for fence construction on other “border security measures” if they ultimately decide that is what is necessary. It’s a classic Washington loophole.
Where is the Fence?
Yes... all parties have moved to put everything under seal and the court has granted their requests.
Bttt
I hope Ramos and Campeon get pardoned. Why should I trust the word of an illegal alien, drug smuggler over them?
As for Scooter, besides the viciousness of treating a memory disagreement as a perjury rap, perjury is bad because it could result in a false legal result: an innocent person could be found guilty or a guilty party can walk as a result of false testimony. In the case of outing Valarie Plame, there was no crime in mentioning her name so the prosecution of Scooter Libby was vicious frivolisness and an ugly setting of scores for Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was trying to prosecute March Rich (pardoned by Bill Clinton) and Scooter was on the other side defending him.
Thanks very much for the docket information. Can now follow appeal progress via Pacer.
Just saw that the submissions have been sealed, so scratch what I said about Pacer.
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