I'm the Commuter
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak investigation Monday, delivering a political thunderbolt in the highly charged criminal case. Bush said the sentence was just too harsh.
Bush's move came just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term. That meant Libby was likely to have to report soon, and it put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.
''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.''
You can read the full account in the AP story here.
Bush's move came just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term. That meant Libby was likely to have to report soon, and it put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.
''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.''
You can read the full account in the AP story here.
Where do you start? Maybe the only appropriate response is to point out that Bush thinks going to prison is too harsh for someone duly tried and convicted, yet has no qualms about imprisoning people for years in Guantanamo, who have never even been charged with any crime at all.
1 comment:
Cheney and Bush had a lot to lose if "Scooter" thought he had nothing left to lose. That's why Bush waited until the last minute to commute the sentence, using Scooter's uncertainty to ensure Scooter's silence. Now Bush will probably wait until his last day in office to give Libby a full pardon--thus guaranteeing Libby won't blab in the meantime.
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