Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: President Bush commutes prison sentence for Lewis 'Scooter' Libby

  1. #1
    beltman713 Guest

    President Bush commutes prison sentence for Lewis 'Scooter' Libby

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19570081/

    President Bush commutes prison sentence for Lewis 'Scooter' Libby

    WASHINGTON - President Bush Monday spared former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from going to prison for 2 1/2 years for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, a White House official said.

    The official said Bush "has commuted the prison sentence ... leaving intact the probation and fines handed down by the court."

    "That means he is not going to jail," the official said.

    Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, was sentenced to prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA agent whose husband criticized the Iraq war.

    This breaking news story will be updated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Cocksucker, but no surprise.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #3
    beltman713 Guest
    Yeah.

  4. #4
    Eckolaker Guest
    Yet again proving that if you have enough money or know the right people, you can get away with anything. Thus, nothing in this country is illegal on those grounds.

    Sad, Sad, Sad.

  5. #5
    PhilosophyGenius Guest
    Libby still has to pay 250,000 at least.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Quote Originally Posted by PhilosophyGenius
    Libby still has to pay 250,000 at least.
    That's probably a drop in the bucket for him. Or, I'm sure he can "raise" the funds from his rich MIC friends.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #7
    simuvac Guest
    Expected, but it shows that even treason (outing an intelligence officer) is not a crime for which this administration can be held accountable.

    You can't even go to jail if you are caught lying about treason, like Libby was.

    This really winds me up. The arrogance of it all. Goddammit.

  8. #8
    simuvac Guest
    As an unnamed Bush official told reporter Ron Suskind,

    "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality--judiciously, as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

    For those who didn't like it, another Bush adviser explained,

    "Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered two to one by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read the New York Times or Washington Post or the LA Times."

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Joe Wilson: 'Did he do this so that Libby would shut up?'

    http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Joe_Wi...from_0703.html

    David Edwards and Muriel Kane
    Published: Tuesday July 3, 2007

    CNN interviewed Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, about the commutation of "Scooter" Libby's sentence soon after it was announced on Monday. "There's very little that surprises me from this administration any more," said Wilson. "I think it's corrupt from top to bottom."

    "I don't give really a darn whether Scooter Libby goes to jail or not," he continued. "What I care about is that the rule of law and the system of justice that has undergirded our democracy for 220 years is upheld. And that is what has been subverted by the president's actions today. ... By commuting the sentence, I think the president raises the very real suspicion that he is party to the obstruction of justice or the coverup of the original crime. ... I think the public has a right to know whether there was a quid pro quo in this. Did he do this so that Libby would shut up?"

    "I believe the president owes the American people an explanation," Wilson concluded, "so the American people themselves can see what it was the prosecutor was talking about when he talked about a cloud over the vice president's office. And if he doesn't do so, I think Congress should use its full authority to investigate."

    NBC's Today Show offered more extensive coverage of the Libby commutation on Tuesday, including reactions from Democratic and Republican candidates and interviews with Joseph Wilson and with conservative Bill Kristol, who applauded the president's "courage and character" and claimed that "there was no underlying crime."

    Wilson expanded on his own earlier remarks, saying, "The fact that the president short-circuited our system of justice by giving Scooter Libby a get-out-of-jail-free card, thereby eliminating any incentive that he would tell the truth to the prosecutor, guarantees that there is a cloud of suspicion put over the office of the president and makes him potentially a suspect in an ongoing obstruction of justice case. ... This was a coverup."

    When asked about the fact that Libby was not convicted of any underlying crime, Wilson replied, "Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a mobster."

    Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball concluded the segment by pointing out that "the president had to act ... or else this guy would have gone to prison."

    "This war is immensely hated by most Americans," Matthews continued. "They don't trust the way it was sold to us. And now it will look like one more seal has been closed on us. ... Scooter Libby knows so much ... All this information now goes with Scooter Libby into freedom and one less chance to get the information. You have to make your own conclusions. ... There's not a journalist in Washington that wouldn't like to have Scooter Libby today under sodium pentathol and find out exactly what happened."

    The following video clip is from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast on July 2.

    Video At Source
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    White House hits back at Libby outrage

    http://rawstory.com/news/afp/White_H..._07032007.html

    Published: Tuesday July 3, 2007

    The White House on Tuesday dismissed a storm of political outrage over President George W. Bush's decision to spare former top aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a two-and-a-half-year jail term.

    Bush insisted he had made the right decision and refused to rule out an eventual full pardon for Libby, a day after commuting the sentence handed down after a trial bound up in the drive to war with Iraq.

    As well as flak from Democrats, Bush faced the ire of conservatives angry that he had not wiped out the conviction entirely for Libby, once a trusted former member of Vice President Dick Cheney's inner circle.

    "I thought that the jury verdict should stand, I felt that the punishment was severe," Bush told reporters Tuesday.

    "As to the future, I, you know, rule nothing in or nothing out," Bush said, when asked whether Libby could ever benefit from a full presidential pardon.

    White House spokesman Snow rejected claims Libby was getting off lightly, after he was convicted of obstructing an investigation into the outing of CIA spy Valerie Plame, wife of a vehement critic of the administration over Iraq.

    "This is hardly a slap on the wrist, in terms of penalty. It is a very severe penalty," said Snow, noting Libby still faced a 250,000 dollar fine, two years of probation and was saddled with a felony conviction.

    "The president also believes, for those who are arguing on behalf of a pardon, that you need to respect the jury system. Scooter Libby was tried before a jury of his peers."

    Democrats kept up the heat on the White House on Tuesday seeking political advantage from Bush's move.

    "I'm outraged," senior Democratic senator Chuck Schumer told supporters in an email.

    "President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence, wiping away two-and-half-years of jail time with the stroke of a pen.

    "We expect more from our president. We expect honor and integrity, we expect moral leadership."

    The Wall Street Journal, which normally takes a conservative line on its editorial page, warned that Bush had evaded responsibility on the Libby case -- by not granting a full pardon.

    "Mr Libby deserved better from a president whose policies he tried to defend when others were running for cover," the paper said.

    Snow interpreted the fact that Bush was also being "pounded from the right" as proof his move was not made for shallow political gain.

    Bush critics claim Libby was part of a White House effort to punish former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was sent by the CIA to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium for nuclear bombs.

    Wilson later criticized the administration's rationale for the Iraq war, and a probe was launched into whether top Bush aides deliberately blew Plame's cover as revenge.

    Democrats reacted swiftly on Monday to news of Bush's move.

    "The president's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people," House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

    "The president's decision to commute Mr. Libby's sentence is disgraceful," Senate Majority Reid said.

    Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought the case, disputed Bush's use of the term "excessive," stressing in a statement that Libby "remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process."

    Wilson added :"I would remind people that this is the president who was governor of Texas (and) refused to commute the first death sentence of a female prisoner, even after the Pope pleaded for clemency."

    New York Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the Bush administration "simply considers itself above the law."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 01-27-2013, 08:38 PM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-17-2009, 10:54 AM
  3. Who Is I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby?
    By Gold9472 in forum 9/11 Justice Forum
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12-10-2007, 02:56 PM
  4. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-14-2007, 01:48 PM
  5. Scooter Libby novel becomes hot online item
    By beltman713 in forum The New News
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 11-09-2005, 04:57 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •