Posted on 06/17/2006 11:10:30 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON -- Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the CIA leak probe, President George W. Bush must weigh whether to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the only one indicted in the three-year investigation.
Speculation about a pardon began in late October, soon after Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald unsealed the perjury indictment of Libby, and it continued last week after Fitzgerald chose not to charge Rove.
"I think ultimately, of course, there are going to be pardons," said Joseph diGenova, a former prosecutor and an old Washington hand who shares that view with many pundits.
"These are the kinds of cases in which historically presidents have given pardons," said the veteran Republican attorney.
The White House remains mum on the president's intentions. Spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment Friday.
Bush has powerful incentives to pardon Libby, however. They range from rewarding past loyalty to ending the awkward revelations emerging from pretrial motions, a flow that could worsen in his trial next year.
Libby was indicted for lying in Fitzgerald's probe into who in the administration leaked the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters in 2003, apparently to undercut her husband's attack on Bush's war-justifying claim that Iraq sought uranium in Niger.
By demanding sensitive, sometimes embarrassing materials, some say, Libby appears to be goading the White House into issuing a pardon. Libby's spokeswoman did not respond to questions about a pardon.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I can't either. Not one. He'll have to ask for a trial by judge and hope he doesn't get a clinton or carter appointee.
No Nixon didnt have a conviction
I think Libby will give a pardon. There are rumors that he mught pardon Former Louisiana Secretary of Insurance Jim Brown at the same time. It would be a smart move. They both are practically accused of doing the same thing and most people even Repubs thought Brown got a bad deal. So he pardons a dem and libby in his last year. Gives some political cover,
Given the nature of this case in which a faithful public servant has fallen victim to a de-moker-rat vendetta, I am going to follow the precedent established by my predecessor and sell Mr. Libby a pardon, uh, Scooter, you got a 20 on you?
At that point, Libby should hand W a 20 dollar bill and they should use it to send out for pizza.
I don't see anything wrong with your logic. I pretty much agree that the D.C. court is a crapshoot. On appeal he would be exhonerated IMO.
What's your take? Should he be pardoned now? It sure could open up a can of worms IMO.
Good points... thanks. Again, I agree with you.
I think Bush is going to let this play out and let the chips fall where they may be. The same "speculation" was made about Bush pardoning the crooked Enron executives. Of course, if Bush pardons Libby and liberals become "outraged," Bush should remind them that Slick pardoned Marc Rich and the Puerto Rican terrorists.
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Tom Brune, Roberts Meeting “Illegal”: Legal Ethicists Say White House Interview. Jeopardized Judge's Impartiality in a Case on Military Tribunals
I hope Bush does pardon Libby. I love watching the libs whining and crying and yelling about something they can do nothing about!
Make no mistake about it, I think Libby is getting a very raw deal with regard to these charges. That being said, I do think Bush will let this play out.
Yes, Bush could bring up a number of very shakey pardons from Clinton. I would rather we not play that game. I think you're right, I would just rather not take that option.
Libby is no stranger to pardons. He represented Marc Rich, the international criminal (and trader with Iran) pardoned by Clinton.
When criminal-traitor Marc Rich was pardoned by Clinton, Libby (who had been his lawyer - as well as a Clinton administration official) called Rich to congratulate him. If Bush pardons Libby, do you think Marc Rich will call him to congratulate him? The two deserve each other!
Hillary, Libby connected via Marc Rich
But senator slammed Scooter, called his actions 'reprehensible'
GOP lawyer (Libby): Facts 'misconstrued' in Rich case
March 2, 2001
Web posted at: 3:15 a.m. EST (0815 GMT)
Time for 'Scooter' to Scoot (Because Libby called Marc Rich to congratulate him on his pardon)
John L. Perry March 4, 2001
It'll hurt like cutting off his right arm, but Dick Cheney has a duty to the presidency to fire his own trusted chief of staff. ...
Over a period of 17 years, when he would weave out of government, Libby represented Rich.
It would be fair to say, as was said of him during the committee hearing, that Libby probably knows more about that tangled case than any man alive.
On Jan. 22, two days after George W. Bush was sworn in as president, Libby did something quite wrong. He placed an overseas phone call, to Switzerland, to Marc Rich.
He phoned his old client and obvious friend, to offer congratulations on having been pardoned by Clinton – arguably the most-damned pardon ever granted by a president in the nation's history.
Libby's congratulations, as his testimony in the committee-hearing transcript reveals, were offered to a man he considered to be both a traitor and a fugitive from justice.
So what's the big deal? No one was injured – as in "no harm, no foul."
This isn't roundball. This has to do with the proper stewardship of the presidency, the delicacy and transcending importance of which this nation is just now, after eight awful years of Clintonism, only beginning to appreciate.
What's wrong, what's harmful is that if you are entrusted with public office, whether on the local school-board staff or as chief of staff of the vice president of the United States of America, you simply do not do what Libby did.
Marc Rich showed greater sensitivity to that imperative than Libby did.
Libby testified that Michael Green, one of Rich's defense counsels, told him that right after the pardon he had taken a thank-you call from the fugitive, who expressed reluctance to phone Libby to state his appreciation for all he had done for him over the years because, as Libby put it, Rich "did not want to get me into any trouble by calling me." ....
It's the right time for "Scooter" to scoot back to private practice again.
John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is senior editor and a regular columnist for NewsMax.com.
Nobody can pardon an innocent man.
Denise Rich, Marc's former wife, was a close friend of the Clintons and had made substantial donations to both Clinton's library and Hillary's Senate campaign. Several months after her last donation, emails reveal Republican attorney Lewis I "Scooter" Libby asked her to approach Clinton about pardoning Marc Rich. Clinton agreed to a pardon that required Marc Rich to pay a $100,000,000 fine before he could return to the states. According to ABC news, Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton.And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.
Not true. A president can issue a preemptive pardon. Ford pardoned Nixon before Nixon had been convicted of anything. It's true that the Marc Rich pardon that Libby may have helped engineer (and that Libby definitely congratulated Marc Rich for) happened AFTER Marc Rich's conviction. Clinton did that pardon on a convicted man. But a president can also pardon a not-convicted scum, like Libby.
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