Get Out Of Jail Free

I don't know, am I supposed to say something about Bush cancelling Scooter Libby's prison sentence? Maybe eight-year-olds read Vleeptron and need somebody to explain the complicated parts to them.

This is an administration of liars and corrupt scoundrels.

I'd add that this is an administration of criminals, but a federal special prosecutor, a grand jury, a criminal court jury and a judge have said that for me.

The wheels of justice turn slowly, and at different speeds.

The first wheel to run over one of the liars and scoundrels close to the Oval Office just happened to get to Scooter Libby first.

More wheels are turning, some from the judicial branch, some from the Democratic-majority Congress which Americans voted in to fumigate the Republican Congress and the Bushies of their arrogant corruption.

Lots more Bush administration figures are scrambling and weaseling and desperately dealing to get out of the way of the justice wheels.

Of course Bush had to spare Libby his 30-month prison sentence. Two and a half years is quite a stretch for a major and loyal White House player.

Without presidential clemency, the only other way Libby could stay out of federal prison would be to deal up with the special prosecutor, to help the special prosecutor continue the investigation into crimes associated with the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity. If Bush had left Libby to twist slowly in the wind, Libby would have been sorely tempted to roll over and testify against White House colleagues and superiors. Bush couldn't let that happen.

It's more than worth noting that the federal judge who threw the book at Libby wasn't some liberal Carter or Clinton appointee. He was a notoriously tough Law and Order Reagan appointee -- a conservative Republican.

This is hardly some sort of win for Bush and his team. The atmosphere in which the rest of the cards will be dealt out and the rest of the hands played will now reek of this arrogant stench, and echo with Bush's official declaration that he and the senior members of his team are Above All Law, and that he personally will use his powers to insulate his cronies from punishment for acts which, if committed by ordinary citizens, would be severely punished, with Watergate-style federal prison sentences.

It's also very relevant to point out that the Republicans who dragged Bill Clinton through an impeachment (and acquittal) have screamed thousands of times that it wasn't about extramarital sex. It was about lying under oath.

Lying under oath was one of the crimes for which a jury convicted and a judge sentenced Scooter Libby. The other was obstruction of justice.

These boys are going down Watergate style. Either a dozen of them will actually do hard time in soft federal prisons -- or the clash between the Bush White House and Congress over evidence and executive privilege will collide in a series of historically epic constitutional crises.

If that plays out in the new Bush-appointed composition of the U.S. Supreme Court, it's going to be a real crap shoot. Will the Supreme Court recognize its constitutional responsibility to force the executive branch to obey the law and the Constitution? Or will the Supreme Court just stooge and whore for the Bushies?

Nobody expected Nixon to be honest.

Americans expected the other two branches of the federal government to put a leash -- and if necessary, a cage -- around an out-of-control, criminal, imperial White House.

And the other two branches lived up to their constitutional duties and didn't fail the American people. The former Attorney General had to go to prison, about a dozen Nixon team players went to prison, the House Judiciary Committee (members of both parties) voted to impeach Nixon, and Nixon hopped the Marine helicopter out of town, the only U.S. president to resign in office.

Not coincidentally, the grotesque, hopeless, pointless American military catastrophe in Vietnam ended a few months later.

Nobody expects Bush to be honest or even competent.

But soon Congress and the federal courts will have to face their duties, and demonstrate to the American people that no president is above the law and the Constitution.

============

Statement by President George W. Bush
on Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby

Monday, July 02, 2007
The White House

The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today rejected Lewis Libby's request to remain free on bail while pursuing his appeals for the serious convictions of perjury and obstruction of justice. As a result, Mr. Libby will be required to turn himself over to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his prison sentence.

I have said throughout this process that it would not be appropriate to comment or intervene in this case until Mr. Libby's appeals have been exhausted. But with the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision.

From the very beginning of the investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame's name, I made it clear to the White House staff and anyone serving in my administration that I expected full cooperation with the Justice Department. Dozens of White House staff and administration officials dutifully cooperated.

After the investigation was under way, the Justice Department appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald as a Special Counsel in charge of the case. Mr. Fitzgerald is a highly qualified, professional prosecutor who carried out his responsibilities as charged.

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.

Both critics and defenders of this investigation have made important points. I have made my own evaluation. In preparing for the decision I am announcing today, I have carefully weighed these arguments and the circumstances surrounding this case.

Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.

I respect the jury's verdict. 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.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.

The Constitution gives the President the power of clemency to be used when he deems it to be warranted. It is my judgment that a commutation of the prison term in Mr. Libby's case is an appropriate exercise of this power.