Did Bush Pardon Libby To Silence One Of His Partners in Crime?

Question

Lil bushy has again ignored the system of law that has served the people of the USA for generations to help insure the silence a criminal who intently acted to blow the cover of a US government operative during a time of war and then when the people of the united states tried to hold him accountable (convicting him in a US court of law of having lied while under oath in a court of law to help lil bushy win reelection).

What do these lying republicans and neo-cons model to our children and the rest of the world. Why should anyone follow any law while criminals hold office and power? Where do we look for help when elected and appointed leaders who swore to follow the law and who should be protecting the rights and liberties of the public are all criminal or second raters. Is this is the death of any illusion of sense of honor or justice in America. ~ Rudy C.

Just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term a coward as always lil bushy caved into pressure to pardon dick cheney's former chief of staff.

"Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war," said Harry Reid. "Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."

Libby's conviction is linked to the investigation into the 2003 retalitary leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Former US ambassador Joe Wilson (an American patriot who bravely questioned the neo-cons basis for invading Iraq) was outraged by lil bushy's show of contempt for US laws and manifests his belief that his administration is above the law.

"Scooter Libby is a traitor" Wilson stated.They owed my family an apology for betraying her." that Bush's action today demonstrates that the White House is "corrupt from top to bottom".

Just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term a complete coward as always lil bushy caved into pressure from the already drank the Kool-aid crowd to pardon dick cheney's former chief of staff.

Libby's conviction was linked to the investigation into the 2003 retaliatory leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Former US ambassador Joe Wilson (a true American patriot who bravely questioned the ethically bankrupt neo-con's basis for invading Iraq) was rightly outraged by lil bushy's show of total contempt for US laws and manifesting his belief that the current administration is above the law.

"Scooter Libby is a traitor" Wilson stated. “They owed my family an apology for betraying her." adding that Bush's action today demonstrates that the White House is "corrupt from top to bottom".

Answer 1

Yeah, he was probably afraid that Scooter would sing like a canary. Just another example of the Bush Admin trying to prove that it's above the law.

Answer 2

Get your facts straight, please.

Pres Bush did NOT pardon Libby, at least not yet. He commuted part of his sentence. There's a MAJOR difference here. All that the commutation does is keep old Scooter out of prison. It does NOT alter the conviction. Nor does it remove the $250,000 fine OR the probation. Old Scoot is still a convicted felon, at least for now...

The reality is that the administration threw him under the bus. The public was demanding answers and Libby was the sacrificial lamb.

Given that it would have been likely that Mr Libby would have come forth with extremely embarrassing and possibly damning information concerning the back-room politics involved in the outing of Valerie Plame it's likely that he was offered the commutation for now probably with a full pardon when Bush leaves office as long as he keeps his trap shut until then.

Keep a couple of facts in mind, whatever you think about Bush. (I'm no fan but that's not the point here.) First off, the President has an absolute right to pardon or commute as set out in The Constitution. He could have pardoned Timothy McVeigh if he wanted to, and McVeigh would be a free man instead of dead. While the political ramifications of a pardon can be devastating to the President -- one only needs to look a Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon for a classic example -- the pardon itself is absolute and unappealable.

The next thing to keep in mind is that the President is the final authority on the classification or declassification of official information. He could have -- and probably did, IMHO -- authorize the release of Valerie Plame's classified status as an undercover operative. This was almost certainly in retaliation for her husband having gone public with the truth of the falsehood of the administrations' claims that Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire nuclear materials and technology in Africa. They thought that he was a "team player" and were pissed that he actually had some morals so they threw his wife under the bus.

The President COULD have admitted to outing Ms Plame and there would have been nothing that anyone could do about it. Remember, he's the final authority on those calls and there's no appeal of his decision on classification matters. Hell, even if he didn't, he could have said that he did and that would have ended the issue. Obviously he didn't feel that it was policitally expedient for himself to do that though in retrospect it might have been the smarter move. The hew and cry would have died eventually and he would have been viewed as a no-holds-barred politician not to be crossed.

But, he didn't have the sack to do that as we all know. When things got hot in the kitchen it's likely that the same back-room politics that lead to Ms Plame's outing also selected Scooter Libby as the next political bus-accident victim. Libby was also probably selected to put Mr Cheney on notice that Bush was still the President and would remain the bus-driver for now. They needed a high-ranking official for public sacrifice and Carl Rove would have been the only other rational choice. So for what should be obvious reasons, Scooter Libby, the VP's right-hand-man, becomes the bus-wreck victim du jour.

Answer 3

The part of Libby's sentence that required him to do time for obstruction of a federal investigation was commuted by the president because "it was too severe." Hmmm.

In July of 2003 three nuns who poured some of their blood on an unmanned missile silo in Colorado were sentenced to approximately three years each in federal prison. They began serving their sentences immediately. But then they believed in what they were doing. Principle pays the price. Hutspa skates.

Answer 4

Some clarification is necessary. Bush DID NOT pardon Libby. Bush commuted the sentence of Libby, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term.

"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."

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."

This means Libby's guilty verdicts stand, he is a convicted felon. Still guilty of several crimes. A criminal.

Still, he should have spent some time in jail.

Answer 5

He didn't "pardon" Libby.

Bush commuted the sentence to eliminate the jail term. The fine ($250,000) and probation are still intact.

Answer 6

Wouldn't want scooter blabbing in the pen. Might find out what's in those man-sized vaults in Cheney's office...

http://faithfulprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/06/cheney-lives-in-paranoid-dream-world.html

Answer 7

I hold that Libby was railroaded by a kangaroo court!
No pardon but the trap is SET...he's a betrayer of the innocent unless Bush does and a crony lover if he does.
For the culprit running loose...see Sandy (Burglar) Berger story

Answer 8

Wow, you are so objective in your question.

Liberals are really an evil bunch. You want a human being, with small children and a wife, to serve 2 1/2 years in federal prison because you don't like Bush. It is pathetic and disgusting. It doesn't appear the elements on the crime of perjury were met by Fitzgerald. Even if he is guilty, two and a half years is grossly excessive. But since you want to point fingers, I will too.

1. Clinton purjured himself and admitted as much. Why are you not up in arms about what his actions say to the world or children you care so much about?

2. Clinton RAPED Juanita Broaddrick. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_Broaddrick stating Juanita Broaddrick is an American former nursing home administrator from Arkansas. She alleged in 1998 that United States President Bill Clinton had raped her two decades earlier. In November 1998, Broaddrick gave an interview (transcript) to "Dateline NBC". The interview, broadcast in February 1999, centered around Broaddrick's accusation that Bill Clinton had raped her on April 25, 1978 during his first campaign for the governorship of the U.S. state of Arkansas. In the interview, she declared that Clinton suddenly "turned me around and started kissing me, and that was a real shock. I first pushed him away. I just told him 'no.'... He tries to kiss me again. He starts biting on my lip... And then he forced me down on the bed. I just was very frightened. I tried to get away from him. I told him 'no.'... He wouldn't listen to me.")

3. Senator Ted Kennedy killed a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne. The facts of course being that he drove drunk of a bridge, swam to shore, then went home and sobered up and called the police the next day when the alcohol was out of his system. Mary Jo was of course dead. Yet his connected family covered it and only plead guilty to leaving scene of an accident. Not only is Kennedy not a model to these children you love so, he actually killed one.

4. Patrick Kennedy, Ted Kennedy's son, was casting votes in Congress while addicted to strong opiates. He then crashed his car into a parked police car with its lights on in the wee hours of the morning and claimed in his intoxicated stupor he was going to cast a Congressional vote. I didn't know you could vote at 3am?

5. Alcee Hastings was a federal judge. He was impeached for bribery and removed from his life tenured seat. He was subsequently elected to the House and Nancy Pelosi tried to place him on a committee with access to sensitive intelligence information.

6. Rep. William Jefferson was found with $100k in cash in his freezer. He is currently under indictment for bribery.

7. Clinton actually sold his pardons, at least Bush does them for free. Clinton, in his last days in office, pardoned people who had or had their family contribute to his presidential library.

Way to be objective you oh-so-clever liberal you.

Answer 9

not sure but we have something to discuss for the next few days.

Answer 10

Libby was pardoned because he committed no crime.