www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Bush spares Libby from jail term

BBC reports:

US President George W Bush has intervened to prevent Lewis Libby, a convicted former vice-presidential aide, from serving a prison term.

President Bush described as "excessive" the 30-month sentence Libby was facing for obstructing an inquiry into the leaking of a CIA agent's name.

Though no longer required to go to jail, Libby is still due to serve a period of probation and pay a fine.

A leading Democratic politician said Mr Bush's decision was "disgraceful".

History will judge the president "harshly" for using his power to benefit his vice-president's former chief of staff, Harry Reid, the leading Democrat in the US Senate, said.

The BBC's James Westhead in Washington said the president's decision was a compromise between pardoning Libby outright and allowing his sentence to stand.

'Criminal conduct'

Lewis Libby, also known by his nickname, "Scooter" Libby, was found guilty in March of perjury and obstructing justice in a case connected to Washington's decision to invade Iraq.

His trial stemmed from the accusation that the White House had illegally made public the identity of a serving CIA agent, Valerie Plame, in an apparent effort to embarrass her husband.

Ms Plame's husband, a former US diplomat, had publicly criticised the basis for the invasion of Iraq.

Libby was found to have lied to investigators about conversations where he mentioned Ms Plame but he was not convicted of having directly leaked her name.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, two years of probation and a fine of $250,000 (�125,000).

Democratic leader Harry Reid said the conviction was "the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war".

Responding to President Bush's decision to commute Libby's sentence, he said: "Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker in the House of Representatives, said Mr Bush's decision showed he "condones criminal conduct".

The prosecutor who led the case against Libby, Patrick Fitzgerald, challenged Mr Bush's statement that the sentence was "excessive", saying "all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals".

'Forever damaged'

Hours before President Bush's announcement, an appeals court had told Libby he could no longer delay going to jail.

The judge ruled that Libby could not remain free on bail while his lawyer appealed against the sentence.

President Bush said he had until now refrained from intervening in the case, waiting instead for the appeals process to take its course.

"But with the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision," he said.

"I respect the jury's verdict," President Bush said. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr Libby is excessive," Mr Bush said.

However, he said, Libby's remaining punishments - the probation period and fine - were "harsh" and would leave his reputation "forever damaged".

Unless Libby is successful in his appeals, his conviction will cost him his law license and thus much of his possible livelihood. The commutation was pretty clearly calibrated to keep Libby out of jail while preserving the possibility of a reversal.

The BBC is somewhat remiss in not covering why conservatives are generally outraged over the Libby conviction. It has emerged from documents that the actual leaker, Richard Armitage, was known to the prosecutor long before Libby gave his testimony, later adjudged perjurious. Whether Patrick Fitzgerald legally stretched his mandate or illegally went on a fishing expedition and successfully leveraged that unwarranted investigation into a perjury conviction is going to be before the courts for several years.

Quite some time ago, Governor Isaac L. Stevens of the State of Washington notoriously pardoned himself for an offense - this bizarre abuse is Governor Isaac L. Stevens's enduring claim to fame.

Fr. Serge

I heard someone say on TV this morning that the commutation of the sentence was not constitutional. I believe it is constitutional since the powers given the president are quite clearly in the constitution. The power to impeach is also in the constitution and given to the Congress, assuming it is organized enough to use it - a dangerous assumption, I think. Was it good judgement for the president to use those powers in this case? Now that's the question. Also, I think Harry Reid's approval ratings are even lower than the president's. All this tells me our country currently suffers from a real lack of effective leadership.

It is unconstitutional when politics are involved, like when attorneys are fired.

Actually, there are certain positions that serve at the pleasure of the president. Bill Clinton famously broke tradition and fired all his held-over attorneys, no reason given. It was really stupid from an "administration of justice" standpoint as districts were left some time without attorneys to head them and that's never good.

The old system where the old guys resigned as their replacements were named was better for the country but Clinton had the right to do it and Bush had the right to fire a lesser number of Republican attorneys for any reason he pleased including the ones that have been dragged out of the administration so far. Since impeachment can be done for virtually any reason, Democrats have the right to investigate (and they are) but there is no constitutional problem.

But when Clinton fired all the federal attorneys, it was not political. He was exercising the authority of his office. Clinton must not be looked at in the same light as President Bush.

If the constitution is a living document then it can mean what those in power decide.

It's always political in such positions. Those attorneys can be fired at will and no reason has to be given.

When Democrats speak of "disgraceful," they'd better be careful. The memory of ex-President Clinton's 11th hour pardons of so many wealthy contributors still remains as an example of Democratic manipulation of the system and the abuse of this same power that we now hear them complain about.

BOB

It is not the action but the person who is acting that is the problem with those Democrats and political activists who call for impeachment.

The CIA can't be too thrilled with the President right now. First he blames them for the Iraq War, even though his administration is responsible for selective intelligence; now he goes and pardons a man who lied during an investigation about the exposure of agents, we won't even know how much damage this administration caused to intelligence for decades.

Anyone see the movie Breached, it's about ex-Special Agent Robert Hansen, I don't know how accurate it was, but it was an interesting watch.

There are many multi-term agents in the CIA who have had grumbles about President Bush since "Albert Gore won the election."

It must be clarified that Valerie Plume was not an operative at the time of the disclosure and that no crime was committed in mentioning her name.

The occasion of the disclosure was an explanation of how Joe Wilson, an ex-Clinton staffer, was sent on a mission to discover if Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy unrefined yellow cake Uranium in Africa that would be enriched so as to be the foundational fissile material in nuclear bombs.

The explanation is that is wife made the suggestion to her supervisors that he should be given permission to act for U.S. interests in his investigation.

There were a few Democrat party politicians who were very grateful that their Republican prosecutors were gone and more compliant Democrat prosecutors eventually came in and cut deals. The fired district attorney handling Arkansas was notably more aggressive in looking at Democrat machine corruption in Arkansas than his Clinton appointed replacement. Clinton won the election. He had the right to do it but then again, so did Bush.

Certain positions serve at the pleasure of the President. That's just the way it's always been. You can grumble about it but the only real way to fix it is to have your faction win the next presidential race and change the list of positions. Different presidents use their powers in different ways. If we are to be fair, we have to allow for that give and take no matter which party is in power.

well, this madness ends in Jan 2009