So I am French and I do not understand what the deal is on Libby?

Question

What did he do and why is he free now?
And why are some of you surprised that Bush is nice to his friends? He has so many he has to thank for being elected and honestly I think he does not give a s&^%$ about what peole think about him or his policy.

And please no Anti French bashing, it's getting old now thanks

Garbage disposal what an adequate pseudo... you should get rid of the disposal part...

Janice, you are so ignorant and so brainwashed that it really makes me wonder... I have lived here for 5 years now and I am happy to say that fortunately 99% of the americans I have met are so much nicer and smarter than you...

Answer 1

Libby was convicted for false testimony under oath. Google Valerie Plame. Valerie Plame was a CIA agent working somewhat under cover and she was outed by someone - no one is sure exactly who but popular opinion is with Dick Cheney. Her name was leaked to the press by someone in the executive office. Scooter Libby covered for the executive office under oath. President Bush commuted the sentence - he does not have to serve time in jail - but the 250K fine and probation still apply. The President has the Constitutional right to do so. I agree, I think it's more than obvious that the President does not care what others think.

Answer 2

Libby was a basically a scapegoat.
Liberals were trying to go after Bush watergate style based off the leak of the identity of a woman (Valerie Pflame) as a CIA operative being a crime. Only problem is.. it's not. But someone had to go down and since Libby "misrecalled" the exact date of a phone conversation with a reporter about the affair, he was convicted of perjury, or "lying". It's utter nonsense, but as I said someone had to pay. As far as I know nobody dislikes Scooter Libby. They really wanted Karl Rove.
Anyway Bush commuted Libby's sentence as 1. He can stay free while appealing his conviction in the courts. If the appeal is overturned Bush will likely pardon him at the end of his term. and 2. Bush was already on thin ice with his base over the immigration bill, and since he can't make the left hate him any more, he really has nothing to lose by throwing a bone to the conservative half of the country who viewed Libby's conviction as a big miscarraige of justice. .

Answer 3

Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury, which is the crime of giving deliberately false testimony.

He committed perjury while under oath before a federal grand jury which was investigating his allegedly criminal actions and he also lied to federal agents. And federal prosecutors brought this case against him, tried him in a court of law and a jury of his peers convicted him, and then a federal judge sentenced him under the federal sentencing guidelines applicable to his conduct, with a bump up for an enhanced penalty for the underlying crime related to the investigation.

The crime being tried was the leaking of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, who was investigating war crimes. This is a crime because if the status of classified information is not respected and standards upheld, the government, CIA, FBI, and other special agencies cannot do their job.

If the President can claim "Executive Privilege" and refuse to turn over documents which have been subpoenaed by the courts, he and his cabinet need to demonstrate respect for the laws in place to protect our system of checks and balances.

From the memorandum of Judge Walton,

“[T]he integrity of the rule of law, which is a core ingredient of the American system of government, is challenged to the greatest degree when high-level government officials come under suspician for violating the law,” and “[t]here must therefore be a process by which the perception of fairness [within our system of justice] withstands the scrutiny of the American public when prosecution authority is called upon to investigate [such] public officials.” (pp. 27-28)

Answer 4

It is a long story, but I will try to make it short. Former Ambassador Wilson got an assignment to go to Niger based upon his wife's suggestion to her boss that he go and check out the story of Yellow cake uranium. He came back and lied about what he found out in a political ploy to make the President look bad. He said the VP's office sent him, he said Iraq was NOT trying to buy uranium, and more.
A State Department employee told a reporter that Wilson's wife was a CIA employee. This was not illegal since she was NOT a covert agent.
Democrats made a howling noise and a special prosecutor was assigned to see if a law was broken and who broke the law. The White House staff were targeted and apparently, Scooter Libby either knowingly or inadvertently told investigators that he heard the story that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA from a reporter. He was prosecuted for lying to investigators and convicted and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. There is a good argument that the prosecutor and the jury pool are all very anti-Bush and anti-Cheney. No crime was EVER found to have occurred and the prosecutor knew going in that the State Department employee was the first to tell a reporter that Plame worked for the CIA.
The whole affair was a political attack that worked. The Democrat operatives did NOT go to jail for lying to the American people OR lying to Congress. How is that for justice?
So the President commuted Libby's prison sentence.

US Veteran above told several lies in his post and stated as fact things believed only by the left.

Answer 5

Someone in the Whitehouse illegally leaked the name of a CIA operative to the press.
As it turned out it was several people to several reporters. Libby was one of those who provided the information to reporters.
(all apparently at the direction of the Vice President).
When the leak was being investigated, Libby lied to the investigators about who he talked to and what he said. He was caught in the lie, tried and convicted perjury and obstruction of justice. He lied to either protect himself or to protect the Vice President, only Libby knows for sure.

No one has been charged with the actual National Security Leak. The original source of the Leak was Richard Armitage. The reporter who published the information was Robert Novak. They are both free.

People are upset because this debacle was hatched in the white house by Cheney and Karl Rove in an attempt to discredit Joe Wilson, (husband of the exposed operative) because Joe Wilson criticized the way intelligence on WMD's was manipulated by the Whitehouse. And no one in the Administration has to answer for it.

Edit.
By the way Janice, the US would not exist if not for the French, or did they not teach the History of the American Revolution in your school?

Answer 6

libby followed illegal orders from cheney and very possibly george w. bush, and exposed the identity of an undercover CIA agent.

Then, he lied in court and wracked up perjury charges, making false statements, and the felony crime of exposing a CIA agent's undercover identity.

The minimum penalty for this crime is 30 months in jail, however bush commuted his sentence so he will do no jail time.

The reason bush did not pardon Libby is because, if he is pardoned, libby would lose his right to the 5th ammendment and he would be forced to tell the truth about his boss, cheney, and his boss's boss, george w. bush.

It's funny though, because at this very time, bush is pushing the Judicial branch of government to require all American citizens to have to serve the minimum penalty for any convicted crime, and then he turns around and commutes his cronie's sentence.

.

Answer 7

Libby was scape goated by a the left because they could not convict anyone within the Bush administration of any real crime associated with the release of Valerie Plames identity as a covert CIA agent. Since they had to get a conviction of someone, they were able to get a procedural crime against Libby. He perjured himself by changing his story while under questioning in separate instances. The problem is, it was determined that no actual crime was committed in the case involving Valerie Plame, so it is shaky at best to determine if Perjury was committed by Libby. So, Bush commuted his sentence instead of granting a full pardon. By doing this, he agrees that a procedural crime may have been committed by Libby, but certainly nothing as egregious to merit 2.5 years of prison time. The prison time was assessed purely to gain political brownie points

Answer 8

Your quite right and us veteran answered the question most effectively. Further your thoughts on Janice were right in fact garbage like her and garbage disposal should be harvested for organ parts.

Answer 9

He allegedly lied to a grand jury, but he did NOT release the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame - Richard Armitage did that. Libby should not have been given jail time, just as Martha Stewart shouldn't have been given jail time for the same thing. Bush did the right thing - actually he should have gone further and pardoned Libby completely. He'll probably do that in January 2009, right before leaving office.

Answer 10

Wait, you're French?

Please, take me back with you!!

:)