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HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Term in CIA Leak Case (Update4)

By Edwin Chen

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush spared Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby from prison in the CIA leak case, saying his 2 1/2-year term was ``excessive.''

Bush acted after a U.S. appellate court today refused to let Libby, 56, stay free during his appeal. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to investigators probing the 2003 leak of Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame's identity. Libby's backers had argued for a pardon.

``My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby,'' Bush said in a statement. ``The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and private citizen will be long-lasting.''

The president's action means that even though Libby avoids prison, his conviction stands, and he is still required to pay the $250,000 fine ordered by a federal judge. He can continue to appeal his conviction and fine.

Bush's decision was denounced by Democrats. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who had demanded that Bush promise not to pardon Libby, called the commutation ``disgraceful'' and said, ``History will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own vice president's chief of staff.''

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of Illinois said Bush's action cements his legacy as one of ``cynicism and division'' that ``placed itself and its ideology above the law.''

`Happy' for Libby

``I am very happy for Scooter Libby,'' said former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, a potential Republican presidential candidate who had urged a pardon. ``This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life.''

William Jeffress, one of Libby's lawyers, said in a e-mailed statement that Libby would have no comment on the commutation.

``As for the defense lawyers, we continue to believe the conviction itself was unjust but are grateful for the president's action commuting the prison sentence,'' Jeffress said.

Republicans who opposed the prosecution of Libby will be pleased, said H. Christopher Bartolomucci, a lawyer at Hogan & Hartson in Washington who worked on pardons in the White House from 2001 to 2003.

``This is a president who is not cowed by public opinion,'' said Bartolomucci. ``This was a truly unique case, a case involving a member of his administration, a highly charged prosecution, so the normal rules go out the window.''

Republicans Say `Yay'

``A lot of Republicans who have been having real problems with the president for a variety of reasons went, `yay,''' said Eddie Mahe, former Republican National Committee deputy chairman.

Melanie Sloan, a lawyer who represents Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, in a civil suit against Libby and Cheney over the leak, said Bush's administration ``believes leaking classified information for political ends is justified and that the law is what applies to other people.''

Bush's statement said that, with ``incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react'' to the appeals court's refusal to let Libby remain free.

Until now, Bush had stayed out of the case, with his aides saying he would let the appeal go forward.

Special Prosecutor

Libby's supporters argued that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was over-zealous in prosecuting Libby for lying to investigators when no one was charged over the actual leak of Plame's status as a CIA official.

Libby was convicted of obstructing justice, perjury and making false statements. He resigned as Cheney's chief of staff upon being indicted in 2005.

Libby was found guilty of lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and a grand jury probing whether the Bush administration deliberately leaked Plame's identity to retaliate against her husband. In a New York Times column on July 6, 2003, Wilson accused the government of twisting intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq earlier that year.

Plame's status as a CIA official was disclosed eight days later in an article by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. Novak testified during the trial that Plame's identity was provided to him by then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and confirmed by White House political adviser Karl Rove.

Fitzgerald argued that Libby lied about his knowledge of the leak to protect his job. It's a federal crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert CIA agent, and the White House had announced that anyone who leaked Plame's identity would be fired. No one was charged with a crime or fired for the leak.

Libby's lawyers said national security matters kept him too preoccupied to remember details about the leak.
 

Steve

Well-known member
Had the prosecution actually done what it was tasked with....Find out who leaked Plumes name,..Armatage would have been exposed....and this would not even been an issue....but in true Washington style...the quest to get Bush,..Chaney,..and Rove,..led to another getting "blamed" and railroaded...

I could really care less about Scooter Libby,..but Holding him responsible for Armatage's inability to maintain secrecy is wrong.



Sometime before 8 July 2003 Robert Novak has a conversation with Richard Armitage (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State). In that conversation he is told for the first time that Wilson's wife works for the C.I.A. [Armitage didn't tell Novak her name; subsequently, after his August 2006 public disclosure that he was the "inadvertent" leak, Armitage has asserted that he did not know her name at the time.] Novak uses an edition of Joseph C. Wilson's biography in Who's Who to identify by her maiden name Valerie Plame. According to the reporters Isikoff and Corn, Armitage's leak was "inadvertent, and the Intelligence Identities Act hadn't been violated."



* 1 October 2003. As would be revealed in September 7, 2006,

He [Armitage] says he was reading Novak's newspaper column again, on Oct. 1, 2003, and "he [Novak] said he was told by a non-partisan gun slinger."
"I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, 'I'm sure that was me,'" Armitage says. Armitage immediately met with FBI agents investigating the leak."
"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however....Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."

on That date the investigation should have ended. the special counsel knew who leaked the information...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_leak_scandal_timeline#_note-57
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Texan said:
I vote No. I'm glad he's not going to prison, but it's just not right. :???:

I agree,I think the sentence was harsh,but it sems like juror's are wasting their time hearing these cases..............good luck
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
The editorials are running wild with comments and reasons for GW's commuting Libby's sentence...I have my own reason for why GW made the commutement- and will eventually give him a complete and full pardon....One reason-- Libby knows too much- and all it would take is letting the word get back to the White House that if I go to the Pen-- I won't be alone....GW and Cheney know that if he told all they could be in the same cell-- and right now they are doing all they can to keep their ever smaller inner circle together- and keep someone from making a deal and turning songbird to save themself...

The flawed Bush Kennedy Immigration bill that was killed and now this, will change GW's next 18 months from a Lame Duck period into a Dead Duck period...He opened himself up to being a target from all sides...

------------------------------------------

Editorial Reaction over Libby Pardon

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, July 3, 2007


Bush May Still Pardon Libby




WASHINGTON -- Following is editorial reaction in U.S. newspapers on Tuesday to President George W. Bush sparing former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2-1/2 year prison sentence for obstructing a CIA leak probe.

Democrats accused Bush of abusing power in a case that has fueled debate over the Iraq war. Conservatives in Bush's Republican party had pressured him to pardon Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

NEW YORK TIMES

"When he was running for president, George W. Bush loved to contrast his law-abiding morality with that of President Clinton, who was charged with perjury and acquitted."

"For Mr. Bush, the president ... untarnished ideals are less of a priority than protecting the secrets of his inner circle and mollifying the tiny slice of right-wing Americans left in his political base."

"He has repeatedly put himself and those on his team, especially Mr. Cheney, above the law."

WASHINGTON POST


"There were mitigating factors in this case. After two years of investigation, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald charged no one with a crime for leaking (CIA operative Valerie) Plame's name."

"It's true that the felony conviction that remains in place, the $250,000 fine and the reputational damage are far from trivial. But so is lying to a grand jury. To commute the entire prison sentence sends the wrong message about the seriousness of that offense."

NEW YORK POST

"Now the president should go all the way - and grant Libby a full pardon ... It would be the right thing to do, because Libby was the victim of an out-of-control prosecutor."

WALL STREET JOURNAL


"By failing to issue a full pardon, Mr. Bush is evading responsibility for the role his administration played in letting the Plame affair build into fiasco and, ultimately, this personal tragedy."

"Mr. Bush's commutation statement yesterday is another profile in non-courage ... Mr. Libby deserved better from the president whose policies he tried to defend when others were running for cover."

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

"In the six years that George W. Bush was governor of Texas, 150 men and two women were executed by the state. In each case, Bush got a so-called clemency memo. He allowed all but one of the executions to proceed.

"In commuting the 30-month sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby ... President Bush said Monday that the sentence was "excessive".

"The irony here would be laughable if the message the president sends with this action was not so damaging ... There are indeed two standards of justice - one for the powerful and well-connected and another for the rest of the country."

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"Perhaps the president felt he had nothing left to lose, given his unpopularity. But considering how much trouble the White House faces in regard to congressional subpoenas, the last thing this president needed was to further antagonize Capitol Hill regarding abuse of executive power."

SACRAMENTO BEE

"Fitzgerald's investigation was about the conduct and truthfulness of the Bush administration. It involved the nation's top leaders, the use and misuse of classified information and the misleading of the public and Congress as the nation moved toward war in Iraq.

"Now the president has commuted the sentence of a man who obstructed that investigation ... he has raised anew questions about his judgment and about all of the actions that were the focus of Fitzgerald's investigation."

© Reuters 2007.
 

Steve

Well-known member
"Fitzgerald's investigation was about the conduct and truthfulness of the Bush administration.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that was not his task.

"On December 30, 2003, Fitzgerald was appointed Special Counsel (under Department of Justice regulation 28 CFR Part 600) in the Plame investigation."

Quote:
* 1 October 2003. As would be revealed in September 7, 2006,

He [Armitage] says he was reading Novak's newspaper column again, on Oct. 1, 2003, and "he [Novak] said he was told by a non-partisan gun slinger."
"I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, 'I'm sure that was me,'" Armitage says. Armitage immediately met with FBI agents investigating the leak."
"I told them that I was the inadvertent leak," Armitage says. He didn't get a lawyer, however....Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."

in effect his job was over when he started.

funny how twisted the facts become when Washington politics become involved.....or some one is looking for a little more work in the limelight....
 
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