Fitzgerald Investigation of Leak of Identity of CIA Agent

Why the commutation? Libby didn't "commute" Judith Miller's jail time by admitting he was the protected source.

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That's only one example how the Bush government works in the good 'ole US of A.

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Roxxxanne wrote:

Bush will flip before Scooter does.

Bush flipped.

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Fitzgerald Questions Whether Equal Justice Prevails re Libby
Fitzgerald Questions Whether Equal Justice Prevails in Libby Case
By E&P Staff
Published: July 02, 2007

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Republican-appointed federal prosecutor in the Plame/CIA leak case, released a brief statement tonight, after President Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

It read: "We fully recognize that the Constitution provides that commutation decisions are a matter of presidential prerogative and we do not comment on the exercise of that prerogative.

"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."

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Wilson: Springing Libby Shows Administration is Corrupt
Joe Wilson: Springing Libby Shows Administration is "Corrupt to the Core"
By E&P Staff
Published: July 02, 2007

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, tonight ripped President Bush's decision to commute the prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the CIA leak case.

Appearing in an audio interview on MSNBC's "Countdown," Wilson called the move the latest evidence that the administration is "corrupt to the core." He added that it meant that the president was now participating in the "obstruction of justice."

Wilson called on both the president and Libby's former boss, Vice President Cheney, to "come clean" on their roles in the leaking of his wife's name, now that Libby has been spared prison. He called the leaking of the name "treasonous."

Asked by host Keith Olbermann if there was a "quid pro quo" -- Libby would remain silent about crucial details of Cheney's role in the case in exchange for a pardon or commutation -- Wilson answered, "absolutely."

Libby was convicted of several counts of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Wilson warned that the message of the commutation might lead to fewer people being willing to risk their lives as covert CIA operatives.

He vowed to continue the civil suit with the aim of getting Cheney and Libby on the stand. And he called on Americans to protest the move by contacting members of Congress. Democratic leaders quickly condemned the Bush act.

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BBB
Anyone want to make a bet that Bush will pardon Libby in Nov, 2008?

BBB

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Playing Politics with Libby; a different viewpoint
Playing Politics with Libby
by Alan Dershowitz
Posted July 3, 2007

The outcry against President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's sentence is misplaced. President Bush acted hours after the U.S. Court of Appeals denied Libby bail pending appeal. That judicial decision was entirely political. The appellate judges had to see that Libby's arguments on appeal were sound and strong -- that under existing law he was entitled to bail pending appeal. After all, if he were to be sent to jail for a year and then if his conviction were to be reversed on appeal, he could not get the year back. But if he remained out on bail and then lost the appeal, the government would get its year. In non-political cases, bail should have and probably would have been granted on issues of the kind raised by Libby.

But the court of appeals' judges, as well as the district court judge, wanted to force President Bush's hand. They didn't want to give him the luxury of being able to issue a pardon before the upcoming presidential election. Had Libby been allowed to be out on appeal, he would probably have remained free until after the election. It would then have been possible for President Bush to pardon him after the election but before he left office, as presidents often do during the lame duck hiatus. To preclude that possibility, the judges denied Libby bail pending appeal. The president then acted politically. But the president's actions -- whether right or wrong on its merits -- was well within his authority, since pardons are part of the political process, not the judicial process. What the judges did was also political, but that was entirely improper, because judges are not allowed to act politically. They do act politically, of course, as evidenced by the Supreme Court's disgracefully political decision in Bush v. Gore. But the fact that they do act politically does not make it right. It is never proper for a court to take partisan political considerations into account when seeking to administer justice in an individual case.

The trial judge too acted politically, when he imposed the harshly excessive sentence on Libby, virtually provoking the president into commuting it.

This was entirely a political case from beginning to end. Libby's actions were political. The decision to appoint a special prosecutor was political. The trial judges' rulings were political. The appellate court judges' decision to deny bail was political. And the president's decision to commute the sentence was political. But only the president acted within his authority by acting politically in commuting the politically motivated sentence.

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Imagine that... the people that don't like Bush have predictably expressed their disdain at the action of commuting Libby's sentence. What a surprise.

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This is the same "president" that said anyone in his administration convicted of a crime will be dealt with. Funny how that can work both ways.

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McGentrix wrote:

Imagine that... the people that don't like Bush have predictably expressed their disdain at the action of commuting Libby's sentence. What a surprise.

McGentrix, Bush commutes a sentence for a decent guy involved in a case that never even involved a demonstrable crime, and the left goes into orbit, but when Clinton pardoned how many people convicted of crimes, including people for money apparently to fund his library, and including FALN terrorists apparently to help his wife be elected in New York, not a stir amongst them. Does that not tell all we need to know?

One thing we know, the Clintons can always be used as a a comparison to use in order to show the utter and absolutely mind boggling hypocrisy of the leftist movement in this country.

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okie wrote:

McGentrix wrote:
Imagine that... the people that don't like Bush have predictably expressed their disdain at the action of commuting Libby's sentence. What a surprise.

McGentrix, Bush commutes a sentence for a decent guy involved in a case that never even involved a demonstrable crime, and the left goes into orbit, but when Clinton pardoned how many people convicted of crimes, including people for money apparently to fund his library, and including FALN terrorists apparently to help his wife be elected in New York, not a stir amongst them. Does that not tell all we need to know?

One thing we know, the Clintons can always be used as a a comparison to use in order to show the utter and absolutely mind boggling hypocrisy of the leftist movement in this country.

'Clinton did it!'

Christ

Can't you guys at least be a little more original? This is your excuse for everything.

I don't need to point out to you that some such as myself were against Clinton's actions back then and are against Bush's actions now.

There was a demostrable crime in this case - Obstruction of Justice and Perjury.

Cycloptichorn

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Cycloptichorn wrote:

'Clinton did it!'

Christ

Can't you guys at least be a little more original? This is your excuse for everything.

I don't need to point out to you that some such as myself were against Clinton's actions back then and are against Bush's actions now.

There was a demostrable crime in this case - Obstruction of Justice and Perjury.

Cycloptichorn

Hahahahahaha. Cyclops, "Clinton did it" has more credibility than "Bush did it" that we hear constantly. And don't you think the point is obvious. Clintons, the crookedest couple ever to reside in the Whitehouse, and then the Democrats now claim they are interested in cleaning up corruption, hahahahahaha , another good one, cyclops. Now with the tizzy over Bush commuting Libby, well, how many people, dangerous people, and criminals did Clinton pardon, some of them the day or two before he left office. This all is very instructive, thats for sure.

You might not be totally hypocritical on these things, cyclops, but the power structure of the Demcrats certainly is, and how does that make you feel about supporting it?

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Quote:

Hahahahahaha. Cyclops, "Clinton did it" has more credibility than "Bush did it" that we hear constantly.

But Bush is sitting in office, doing bad things. When we say 'Bush did it!' we mean 'Bush broke the law/lied/obfuscated/whatever yesterday. There's a significant difference between complaining about the policies being undertaken by the sitting president, and trying to use complaints about past presidents to justify the current one's failings.

When you say 'Clinton did it!' you are trying to justify the actions of the current administration by pointing out what others have done. But that's bullshit. If you honestly believe that the Clintons were the 'crookedest couple to reside in the WH,' then you should be incensed that Bush is modeling after that behavior.

That is, if you actually care about anything other than partisanship, which I honestly doubt.

Don't cloud this issue by bringing Clinton into it. We're talking about pardoning a subordinate in order to keep them from spilling the beans on your administration's lawbreaking.

Cycloptichorn

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okie wrote:

McGentrix wrote:
Imagine that... the people that don't like Bush have predictably expressed their disdain at the action of commuting Libby's sentence. What a surprise.

McGentrix, Bush commutes a sentence for a decent guy involved in a case that never even involved a demonstrable crime, and the left goes into orbit, but when Clinton pardoned how many people convicted of crimes, including people for money apparently to fund his library, and including FALN terrorists apparently to help his wife be elected in New York, not a stir amongst them. Does that not tell all we need to know?

One thing we know, the Clintons can always be used as a a comparison to use in order to show the utter and absolutely mind boggling hypocrisy of the leftist movement in this country.

I gather from the above that you feel that Bush's action is payback, and justified, for Clinton's.

Libby is not a nice guy at all. He sat back and let Judith Miller rot in jail, rather than admit that he was the protected source.

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Miller sat in jail on "ethical" grounds, because she didn't want to reveal her source - an industry-wide standard. Bush and his gang, on the other hand, have no such ethics or standards. Only the blind can't see that.

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cicerone imposter wrote:

Miller sat in jail on "ethical" grounds, because she didn't want to reveal her source - an industry-wide standard. Bush and his gang, on the other hand, have no such ethics or standards. Only the blind can't see that.

It was her choice. She was found in contempt of court and could have ended her own jail time at her leisure.

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"Why is the President flip-flopping? Why does Scooter Libby get special treatment?"

-- Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), noting that just last year, the Bush administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in an attempt to uphold a lower court's ruling that a 33 month prison sentence for Victor Rita, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, was reasonable.

Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence of 30 months for perjery and obstruction of justice yesterday because it was "excessive."
Related News
Quote of the Day
"I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own, unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair."

-- George W. Bush, writing in his autobiography, A Charge to Keep.
http://politicalwire.com/

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Again we find the conservatives out of touch with mainstream America.

Quote:

Most in USA Disagree with Bush Decision to Commute Libby Prison Sentence: 21% of Americans familiar with the legal case involving former White House aide Scooter Libby agree with President Bush's decision to commute Libby's prison sentence, according to a SurveyUSA nationwide poll conducted immediately after the decision was announced. 1,500 Americans were surveyed. Of them, 825 were familiar with the Libby case. Only those familiar were asked to react to the President's action. 17% say Bush should have pardoned Libby completely. 60% say Bush should have left the judge's prison sentence in place. 32% of Republicans agree with the President's decision, compared to 14% of Democrats and 20% of Independents. 26% of Republicans say Libby should have been pardoned completely, compared to 21% of Independents and 8% of Democrats. Conservatives split evenly: 31% say Libby should have been pardoned. 35% say the judge's sentence should have been left in place. 31% agree with the President's decision to commute the prison sentence, but to leave the fine and conviction in place. Reaction to the President's decision may evolve over time. This poll attempts to measure a first reaction to the news, before many individuals would have had a chance to be influenced by political spin applied to the story.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=4b5255b9-3878-4082-b7d0-160d8ddcd52e

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Advocate wrote:

okie wrote:
McGentrix wrote:
Imagine that... the people that don't like Bush have predictably expressed their disdain at the action of commuting Libby's sentence. What a surprise.

McGentrix, Bush commutes a sentence for a decent guy involved in a case that never even involved a demonstrable crime, and the left goes into orbit, but when Clinton pardoned how many people convicted of crimes, including people for money apparently to fund his library, and including FALN terrorists apparently to help his wife be elected in New York, not a stir amongst them. Does that not tell all we need to know?

One thing we know, the Clintons can always be used as a a comparison to use in order to show the utter and absolutely mind boggling hypocrisy of the leftist movement in this country.

I gather from the above that you feel that Bush's action is payback, and justified, for Clinton's.

Libby is not a nice guy at all. He sat back and let Judith Miller rot in jail, rather than admit that he was the protected source.

He also put Ms Wilson and other CIA operatives' lives in jeopardy by his outragous attempt to smear a political opponent. Stop the lie that there was no underlying crime. That is total bullshit as Fitzgerald pointed out when he announced the indictment. And what Clinton did has no bearing on this. Bush is obstructing justice.

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Fitzgerald Investigation of Leak of Identity of CIA Agent

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