WASHINGTON (AP) – 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’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I respect the jury’s verdict,†Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.â€
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.â€
Full Story Here:
Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
I wonder why? Why won’t Mr. Bush go ahead and pardon our Border Patrol agents, or at the very least, commute their sentences as well??
Ramos and Compean and other law enforcement officials have been sent to prison for doing their jobs…
Sure, they made mistakes in the way they did their jobs, I am not even remotely saying they didn’t, but no one died, and in relation to the seriousness regarding the crimes committed, who was the most guilty?? Someone attempting to protect the border or someone that was implicated in the outing of a CIA agent??
All concerned are guilty under law, personally I feel that Libby fell on his sword to protect a certain higher up, but why just commute Libby’s sentence??
If you’re going to use that ‘Executive Privilege’ thing, you might as well be generous with it, Bush can’t make himself look too much worse and a pardon or a commuting of the sentences for Ramo and Compean would go a long ways in helping the Presidents standings…
Surely cronyism isn’t playing a part in this decision, is it?? Is Libby being rewarded for being a good soldier??
And a $250K fine?? Oh please…
Some rabid Bush Bot supporter with $$$ will take care of that for him, and while I’m in a cynical mood, did anyone NOT see this coming??
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Lying to the Grand Jury….
That’s OK with Bush?
HMMM.
Must be…
Fred, I honest to God did not see this coming. It is wrong on so many freakin’ levels, and I believed with all my heart that Bush would uphold the sentence. I am crushed. It’s total betrayal…and I will never forgive this administration unless they do pardon/commute/ call it what you will, our border agents.
I really wanted to believe that Bush had a moral or scruple left.
“Someone attempting to protect the border or someone that was implicated in the outing of a CIA agent??”
Might want to look at that statement again Fred. Libby was implicated for perjury (bad memory) in an investigation that had already found what it was designed to look for. It had also found that the leaker didn’t commit a punishable crime and yet the investigation continued.
The reason for a commute vs a full pardon is with a commute, Libby can still appeal, and during appeal can call Wilson and Plame back into court. Want to talk perjury, look at the things each of those have said IN court to a jury.
If the appeals fail, expect to see a full pardon when W leaves the whitehouse.
Well Nazh, that makes perfect sense… Never thought of it like that…
This is SOP for sitting Presidents. Clinton pardoned a whole passel of people and on and on clear back to GW. I’m not surprised by this and I don’t really have a problem with it. If it was my buddy, cohort, lackey or whatever this guy is to Bush I’d do the same thing. And you have to remember some of the lower ranking guys have to fall on their swords to protect those at the top and those who fall on their swords expect to be taken care of.
If y’all remember Lt. Callie he was convicted and never did a day of hard-time and he was Westmoreland’s fall guy. And their was Billy Solestz when LBJ was in office and if he’d have talked LBJ would have ended up in Leavenworth. but he didn’t talk and was taken care of. It’s all part of the game.
At least I did see this coming…
BUT… I remember all too well when I DIDN’T SEE THIS COMING!
BTW… Did Clinton have a coke habit we never heard about???
This is nothing more than to keep a Tell-All book from coming out of Libby.
Can you imagine what he could write about Dick Cheney and George W. Bush?
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during this deal being made.
Boy, the memories of so many liberals are quite short since they have been attacking Bush on this yet conveniently and selectively forget the commutations and pardons grants by Clinton.
Wow. Nazh sounds like a lawyer…NO insult intended. That is the best analysis of this I have read and I have been around the web a couple of times. Yes. Some wealthy republican(s) will pay Libby’s fine. Since he cannot work as a lawyer in the future I am equally certain that a think-tank position and/or a couple of board memberships will be coming down the road. I also fully expect a pardon in January 09 and I do not disagree with any of it. To paraphrase the old Baretta theme song…”If you didn’t do a crime, you shouldn’t do the time.”