Posted on 04/12/2018 6:37:00 PM PDT by ethom
President Donald Trump is poised to pardon Scooter J. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, according to sources familiar with the president’s thinking.
The president has already signed off on the pardon, which is something he has been considering for several months, sources told ABC News.
The move would mark another controversial pardon for Trump and could raise questions as an increasing number of the president’s political allies have landed themselves in legal jeopardy. The White House has repeatedly said that no pardons are currently on the table for people caught up in the Russia investigation.
Libby was convicted in 2007 of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a former covert CIA operative. Then-President George Bush commuted Libby's 30-month sentence, sparing him prison time, but didn't pardon him.
After Libby claimed that he couldn't have been the source of the leak, multiple people came forward to testify that they learned of Plame's identity from Libby prior to when Libby said he had first received the information.
At trial, Libby claimed to have simply forgotten he actually learned about the identity from Cheney a month before he said he had.
Since the conviction, Libby has since had his law license restored and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell restored his voting rights in 2013.
Many conservatives have been urging a pardon for Libby, including attorneys Joe diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Warming up the pardoning pen and taking a shot at that SCUMBAG, GW BUSH...That’s the spirit.
Scooter Libby wasn’t the source of the leak, yet this article acts as though he was. It was a process crime - the prosecutors knew on day one what had really happened that there was no criminal wrongdoing or malicious activity - but the “investigation” had to continue.
The entire thing was a lie by the media to damage Republicans.
Exactly right.
Bush commuted his sentence but did not issue a full pardon...I guess thought that would help Libby without getting the media stirred up again (it didn’t work, as you may recall).
Are you speculating or do you have a source for this?
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the message he sent was if we don't like your client we'll come after you, and that, for any attorney in the business, is a declaration of war.
Now, the message is we'll come after you, if you're a Republican.
He also left him twisting in the wind during the persecution.
Most people here know, but for newcomers...
The actual source of the leak of Plame’s name was Colin Powell’s man, Richard Armitage. On day one of the special prosecutor’s appointment, he called him and confessed that he was the source.
He was ordered to remain silent, and the special prosecutor proceeded to “investigate” for another year and a half, and finally got Scooter Libby for supposedly “lying” about it. The prosecutor, Fitzgerald, knew for a fact that Libby had nothing to do with it, and convicted him anyway.
As ordered, both Armitage and Colin Powell remained silent during the trial and conviction, but afterward Armitage went public. No one cared and Libby’s conviction remained on the books.
Amen to that. G.W.B. should be ashamed of himself.
If I remember correctly, Robert Novak said right out that he was the one who first mentioned it, because it was an open secret in DC. People were asking how Joe Wilson got the job of going to Niger and “investigating” if Saddam had approached them about yellowcake, and Novak said, “Well, his wife is CIA and she suggested him.”
Caught him in a perjury trap that had nothing to do with the fake undercover agent allegedly being outed. Patrick Fitzgerald knew all along it was Richard Armitage, but he never even bothered interviewing him.
I will never forgive W for not doing this years ago.
God bless President Trump.
Shameful that Libbey had to endure anything of this. My opinion of GWB started its long, precipitous descent when he failed to pardon Libbey.
Trump should have Libby at the White House for the pardon.
Not speculating, but the source is private (and a Democrat). That was a line that shouldn’t have been crossed. It’s sort of like professional courtesy among sharks.
The investigation concluded there was no crime in the incident being investigated, but Scooter was repeatedly questioned and he confused two different dates for the same meeting.
One of the dates had to be untrue, so he was convicted of perjury, no mercy.
Bush had ordered him to not avail himself of the Fifth Amendment protections and to testify without council present.
Bush is Deep Swamp Globalist.
Armitage was the “source of the leak” by his own admission, but it was obvious Wilson’s wife was CIA from Wilson’s own idiotic op ed ... as soon as anyone Googled the POS after reading the op ed his Who’s Who and other crap led you to his wife’s association with the company Brewster Jennings - a CIA front company from the days of Aldrich Ames. Doh!
G Bush commuted Libby's 30 month prison sentence.
There's very little Obama could've "accomplished" if GWB hadn't opened the door wide. JMHO
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