Posted on 07/03/2007 6:55:45 AM PDT by Utah Girl
Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice — but even if you accept that these convictions were just, what Fitzgerald did not demonstrate was that any kind of harm was done.
Whatever Libby did was unrelated to the the publication of Valerie Plame Wilson's name in Robert Novak's column. We know of a certainty that it was Richard Armitage who retailed her name, first to Bob Woodward before Libby ever heard of her, and then to Novak. Armitage, a State Department official, did this independently of any actions taken at the White House or anywhere else.
Therefore, even if the publication of her name had been a violation of her covert status — which is still at issue, for even though the CIA has declared her "covert," its definition of the word might not rise to the level required by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 — Libby had nothing to do with it.
What we're left with, then, is the argument that high-ranking government officials shouldn't lie to grand juries. Fair enough. Nobody should lie to a grand jury. But it's simple logic that there should be some relationship to the purpose of the lie and the effect of the lie and the punishment meted out for the lie.
Patrick Fitzgerald points out that the sentence follows federal guidelines. Right there you have the grounds for commutation. If it's true that Judge Reggie Walton had no standing to sentence Libby more lightly when no harm was done by the lies in question, then commutation makes all the sense in the world — unless you view his prison time as a proxy for the supposedly bad and noxious and evil behavior of the Bush White House.
For personal reasons, I will confess I wish Bush had pardoned Libby. I think there are good legal arguments for it as well, and I speak as someone who has read every scrap of paper related to the case.
I can see, however, how that would have been a nearly impossible call for Bush. For one thing, Patrick Fitzgerald is currently serving as a U.S. attorney in his administration. Were Bush to find that Fitzgerald had conducted a runaway investigation trampling on Scooter Libby, he would not be able to answer the question of why he would allow such a prosecutor to remain the U.S. attorney in Chicago. And if he fired Fitzgerald, as logic would dictate a pardon would require him to do, the storm would be unimaginable. There would be talk about impeachment — serious talk, and not so easily dismissed with a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate.
We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as “excessive.” The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.
Although the President’s decision eliminates Mr. Libby’s sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process.
This was Nifongism. A partisan witchhunt. A show trial.
I hope that Scooter Libby fights his appeal and clears his name (he is still penalized with $250,000 in fines right now).
Me too.
“It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.”
This isn’t what I heard when a sitting president was caught lying about workplace sex affairs in a case where he was being charged with sexual harassment in the workplace. He bought the testimony of Monica Lewinsky (conspiracy to commit perjury) as well.
“everybody does it”.
FNC did a good job of explaining this.
CNN did nothing all night but rant and rave about the evil WH and Libby in “lockstep” with the even more evil Cheney.
Not even the Republican led Congress would do an investigation to lay out for all to see exactly what her status was. Rather they laid low and allowed an never to be again special prosecutor go fishing while they provided him the equipment and bait.
There does appear to be a severe case of infectious blindness to liberal methods of operations.
Sorry Fitz but your credibility stinks and you are unworthy of making any statement regarding justice.
This is a classic example of when commutation should apply....
gross miscarriage of justice...
prosecutor run amok....
irresponsible judge...
the list goes on.
I still want to see Chris Matthew’s head explode...
Hooray President Bush!
BUMP!
I'm no longer a Bush supporter in just about any way, shape or form but I agree that putting Scooter Libby in jail was just absurd and I believe what the president was right in what he did with the commutation.
BUT! As far as I'm concerned Libby should have to spend his 30 months in some country club federal prison as long as Compean and Ramos are sitting in jail. It's not outrageous that the president let Libby off the hook but it's insanely outrageous that Bush did not PARDON COMPEAN and RAMOS!
Compean and Ramos risked their lives on the border and are being held in solitary confinement in 6x12 cells. They are heavily shackled when they are out of their cells. That is excessive!
George W. Bush needs to free the young men and do so today!
Yup. Scooter took the bait and was nailed. If he had simply said “I can’t recall...” as a certain Clintonoid did 66 times, this whole farce could’ve been avoided.
I bet Bush goes up in the polls.
The single biggest argument in favor of commuting Libby's sentence is this:
There is a very strong possibility that his conviction is going to be overturned on appeal (on a number of grounds that I'd need more time to list), so having him serve his sentence while his appeal is being heard makes no sense at all.
One could certainly make the case that he's guilty until an appellate court rules otherwise, but it would be a gross miscarriage of justice for someone to have a conviction overturned on appeal after he has already served all or part of his sentence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.