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It is always a challenge to describe legal proceedings for a general audience and accurately capture clearly the gist of the arguments without oversimplifying them or making them utterly boring and incomprehensible to non-lawyers. Having said that, I believe that while the clock is rapidly ticking on Libby's effort to remain free pending the resolution of appeal, the papers he filed Tuesday need to satisfy so little and his arguments are so compelling, that I will be surprised if the Court of Appeals does not agree with his position. As I noted yesterday, there are three general arguments he makes...

Professor P.S. Ruckman of Rock Valley College has studied pardons, and wrote to David Frum of NRO about the extensive array of tools available to presidents seeking to avoid injustice through use of executive power as a check on the judiciary. Some highlights of what he found: By granting a respite (or a series of respites), the president can 1) help Libby avoid prison 2) allow the appellate process to continue, for now, without the disruption of a pardon and 3) allow any decision on a pardon to be made after the election - a clear political concern to many....

June 06, 2007 Sentencing of Scooter Libby Click here to launch the Podcast Player The sentencing of Scooter Libby was the last in a series of acts that has resulted in a shocking injustice – one created by and enabled by federal officials. As I’ve been saying for many months, this is a “he said-she said” case about political infighting that would have never been brought in any other prosecutor’s office in America. The CIA started the ball rolling by sending the Democratic partisan husband of one of its employees to Niger on a sensitive mission. Knowing an opportunity when...

In May, former CIA employee Valerie Plame, the woman at the heart of the CIA leak investigation, agreed to write her memoirs for Crown Publishing for a reported $2.5 million. The book was scheduled to come out in fall 2007 and was to be titled Fair Game. Everything seemed set. And then the deal fell through. A Crown spokesman told The New York Times that the company and Plame “had a difference of opinion on some of the contract terms.” Nobody offered any details. Weeks later, in mid-July, Plame reached another agreement with another publisher, Simon & Schuster. This deal...