Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence

President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term that Bush said was excessive.

Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, and Bush said his action still "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070702/D8Q4NGAO0.html

Grant of Executive Clemency
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0070702-4.html

Statement by the President
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0070702-3.html

[Letum]

If that happen in the UK there would be uproar!

[Heibges]

Will Aldrich Ames, John Pollard, and Robert Hansen be let out next?

Edit: And John Walker Jr. and his family.

[Tchocky]

Quelle surprise.

[robbo180265]

Bet Paris Hilton's p##d off

Its actually less than I expected; a full pardon..

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by waste gate

Its actually less than I expected; a full pardon..

The pardon will come! It just has to wait for the last hours of Bush's term in office. If he did it now, there would be big problems for him.

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

The pardon will come! It just has to wait for the last hours of Bush's term in office. If he did it now, there would be big problems for him.

It may not matter in the last hours of his presidency, but in his statement Bush claims; I respect the jury's verdict. That may place him in a corner.

Article II Section 2 gives the president unquestioned authority to grant pardons. I cn't see any problems arising. He has already been so weakened he couldn't use his 'bully pulpit' to rally support for the immigration bill.

[Tchocky]

Originally Posted by bush

This case has generated significant commentary and debate. Critics of the investigation have argued that a special counsel should not have been appointed, nor should the investigation have been pursued after the Justice Department learned who leaked Ms. Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak. Furthermore, the critics point out that neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation. Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.

Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that 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. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place.

A nice example of saying without saying. "some people say"....."others say". If news shows get pulled up for this, so should George. He takes on what nameless others have said, then claims tro have "concluded" something. Yup, sure.
He's giving more air time to critics, the party line on the justice system for the defense, and nothing of his own. Bah!


Given Libby's years of (highly lucrative) service, I don't think the fine will trouble him greatly.
This gives me the impression that it's OK to commit perjury.

Check out these pardons Tchocky. Based on the convictions many other things could be considered OK. We know that isn't true.

An example:
SMITH, Gerald Owen, Florence, Mississippi, Armed bank robbery

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pardonchartlst.htm

[Tchocky]

True.

Doesn't make it OK, though

[bradclark1]

Bush will give him a full pardon at his last hour. He wouldn't give a crap what people think then. Bet a virtual dollar!
Kind of takes away from what he said at the beginning of the investigation.

[Tchocky]

C'mon brad, live a little!


I bet my virtual house! AND my virtual kids!

[P_Funk]

When Ford let Nixon off that was the end of integrity on the White House. It wasn't that Nixon did some bad stuff. It was that after he was caught he got let off the hook.

The really bad part is that the American people just go with it. Its times like these that I really dig the French. As weird and snooty as they are, if the government does something they don't want they riot til they get what they want.

[August]

This is what Giuliani had to say about it:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editor...l?id=110010277

Speaking of justice, Mr. Giuliani has been more circumspect than some of his rivals on whether he would pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. And he repeated again that he wouldn't pardon Mr. Libby "right now." On the other hand, Mr. Giuliani advanced a pretty good argument that he should never have been tried. "Perjury has to be material--it has to relate to what you're investigating," he offered. "If someone goes in front of a grand jury and tells a lie about an insignificant fact, it's a lie but it isn't perjury. There's all kinds of lying that isn't criminal . . . If the investigation is about a non-crime, when you know who did it, how could anything be material to it?" That sounds an awful lot like an argument for a pardon, even if Mr. Giuliani seems to think the time may not be right.

According to a lawyer friend of mine, if Giuliani is right, and the court of appeals agrees, Bush will have spared an innocent man. If he had pardoned him outright, Libby would have been deprived of the opportunity to prevail in the appellate court.