- On July 2, the US Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia (Washington) ruled on US v. Libby (07-3068) saying I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby must be imprisoned while appealing his conviction March 6 of lying
to federal investigators and a grand jury and obstructing their probe of
the 2003 leaking of CIA official Valerie Plame's identity. The court said
Libby "has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question"
for him to remain free under federal law. Earlier, US District Judge Reggie
Walton refused to let Libby remain free during appeal saying evidence of
his guilt was "overwhelming."
-
- Libby faced 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine for
his conviction handed down June 5 and as of early July 2 appeared heading
for incarceration within weeks.
-
- Enter George Bush in his latest brazen and contemptuous
defiance of the law. Within hours of yesterday's court decision, he ignored
overwhelming public opposition to a pardon and commuted the sentence of
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. Case closed with little
more than the president's cynical statement that he "respect(s) 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." Libby
needn't worry about the fine either. His rich friends will take care of
that, too, as part of the deal.
-
- The president's statement and commutation contradicted
Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino's earlier in the (July 2)
day response to the court verdict saying "Scooter Libby still has
the right to appeal, and therefore the president will continue not to intervene
in the judicial process. The president feels terribly for Scooter, his
wife and their young children, and all that they're going through."
So do Libby's hard right supporters who quickly hailed the commutation
as a courageous act while others respecting the law condemned its brazen
disrespect for it.
-
- Senate majority leader Harry Reid called Bush's granting
clemency "disgraceful (and) Now, even that small bit of justice has
been undone." Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy said the "White
House....sees itself as being above the law." Valerie Plame's husband
Joseph Wilson sharply criticized the president's action stating it "should
demonstrate to the American people how corrupt this administration is.
By his action, the president has guaranteed that Mr. Libby (and everyone
else in the administration) has no incentive to begin telling the truth."
-
- The public's verdict on this matter has yet to be heard.
When new polls are published they'll will surely agree with Mr. Wilson,
outraged Democrats and all people of conscience.
-
- There's no doubt Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney cut a deal
with Libby for his silence.
-
- It's likely to heighten demands for impeaching the president
and vice-president based on further "grounds" for doing it. It
now remains for a groundswell to build and stiffen congressional leaders'
spines enough to get on with what no further delay can be tolerated. Expeditiously
removing a lawless president and vice-president from office is the only
remaining hope of restoring the rule of law and showing those in contempt
of it won't go unpunished as Mr. Libby has.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
|