Posted on 07/02/2007 11:11:21 PM PDT by goldstategop
N COMMUTING I. Lewis Libby's prison sentence yesterday, President Bush took the advice of, among others, William Otis, a former federal prosecutor who wrote on the opposite page last month that Mr. Libby should neither be pardoned nor sent to prison. We agree that a pardon would have been inappropriate and that the prison sentence of 30 months was excessive. But reducing the sentence to no prison time at all, as Mr. Bush did -- to probation and a large fine -- is not defensible.
Mr. Libby was convicted in March on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff had told the FBI and a grand jury that he had not leaked the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame to journalists, but after hearing abundant testimony and carefully deliberating, a jury concluded that he lied. As we wrote at the time of the conviction, lying under oath is unacceptable for anyone, and particularly for a government official. As Mr. Bush said in his statement yesterday, "our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Hey WP, how much time did Ted Kennedy serve for manslaughter? Oh, that’s right, he wasn’t convicted. I must have missed your outrage over this.
And what about Sandy Pants Berger. He paid a $50,000 fine, got a slap on the wrist and voluntarily disbarred himself for 5 years to avoid jail time. For a far worse crime!
The Washington Post was silent.
FOR ME TO POOP ON!
No fair-minded person who is thoroughly familiar with the relevant facts of the case believes that the prosecution came anywhere near meeting its burden to prove that Libby didn't simply misremember, as opposed to deliberately lying to deceive. There were others who tesitified at the trial, and/or to the Grand Jury, whose memories were clearly no better than Libby's, and who also said things that were untrue (deliberately or otherwise.) That alone shows reasonable doubt.
Even were all of that not so, it is vital to follow precedent in such matters. And the controlling precedent here is the punishment for perjury meted out to a government official of even higher office than Libby: William Jefferson Clinton.
If I were Libby, I’d say that I’m staying in jail and not leaving until I received a full pardon.
They’d have to drag me out and then arrest me for refusing to leave.
Had the appeals process been exhausted, I personally think Scooter should have had a full pardon, but as it’s not, the president took the action that the case required: commuting the jail sentence that shouldn’t have been there in the first place, that is excessive considering the nature of the evidence, and beyond, is in relation to an investigation that continued far beyond it’s mandate.
I firmly believe this will be overturned on appeal. Just wish that Fitzgerald could be prosecuted for malicious prosecution for putting on such a shoddy case, and for continuing once the ‘leak’ had been identified, and the lack of a crime uncovered.
Libby has a far higher authority to answer to:
Zechariah 8:17 “let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the LORD”
Did the Compost write scathing editorials when Cliton pardoned his brother?
Has Fitzy ever explained the “obstruction of justice” in detail.
The leaker, Dick (forgot last name), said he called Fitzy and said he might be the leaker. How did Libby obstruct justice?
every time I hear the words N Y Times and Wa.Post, dang it, I gotta go crap, I need Larry the lawyer, I have bad paper poop disease.
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