Posted on 07/02/2007 9:45:05 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court refused on Monday to step in and delay former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence in the CIA leak case.
The unanimous decision is a dramatic setback for Libby's legal case and puts pressure on President Bush, who has been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Libby faces 21/2 years in prison on his conviction of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. The former chief of staff to Cheney, he is the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.
Libby had hoped that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would put that sentence on hold because he believed he had a good chance of overturning the conviction on appeal. The court unanimously rejected the request.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has not yet assigned Libby a prison or given him a date to surrender. But last week it designated him as federal inmate No. 28301-016.
That’s good to know, if true. Piranha .... see post 49.
Shocking .. Scooter ~~PING! God bless him and his family.
Fox News is reporting President Bush will commute Libby’s prison term
His sentence is being commuted.
Just a commute... no Pardon. Bush has no guts.
RF, this allows him to continue his appeal, which will allow him to clear his name if he is successful. A number of people have speculated that this is something he would want and that may well be.
He didn’t break the law and he shouldn’t go to jail.
What’s your problem? Do you not want friends to support you when you get railroaded by a corrupt prosecutor and an idiot judge?
The president does not have that power.
Man did you guess wrong on that one!
Bush Commutes Sentence against Libby: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usbush0703,0,3656692,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Correction. Should not have that power. This is it, I’m done with Bush as well. He’s lost me.
He didn’t break any law. There was no case to investigate. It was all fabricated. You can’t obstruct an investigation into something when the guilty person had already confessed before the investigation even began.
If anything, Fitzgerald should be prosecuted for prosecutorial mishandling of a case.
A pardon at this time would be tantamount to acknowledging that Scooter was guilty, then he's being "pardoned" or "forgiven" for his crime.
A commutation of sentence allows the appeal process to go forward all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Then, if he is found guilty, whoever is the president at that time can pardon him. God help Scooter (and all of us) if it's The She-Beast.
You posted this nearly three hours before the announcement was made that GWB was commuting Scooter's sentence. Almost makes me think that GWB is a lurker, read your post, and agreed ;-)
Good call.
I have never seen a better example of why a President having the power to pardon is a GREAT thing. Libby was railroaded in a fishing expedition.
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