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In a move that has keenly disappointed some of his strongest conservative allies, President Bush has decided not to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, for his 2007 conviction in the CIA leak case, two White House officials said Monday.
On Bush’s last full day as president, Bush did commute the sentence of two former Border Patrol agents—Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos—for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and then lying about it. But White House press spokesman Tony Fratto told NEWSWEEK “you should not expect any more” pardons and commutations from Bush before he leaves office Tuesday. Another senior official, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive matters, confirmed that no more pardons would be granted.
But the decision not to pardon Libby stunned some longtime Bush backers who had been quietly making the case for the former vice presidential aide in recent weeks. A number of Libby’s allies had raised the issue with White House officials, arguing that as a loyal aide who played a key role in shaping Bush’s foreign policy during the president’s first term, including the decision to invade Iraq, Libby deserved to have the stain of his felony conviction erased from the record. In the only public sign of the lobbying campaign, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial strongly urging Libby’s pardon.
“I’m flabbergasted,” said one influential Republican activist, who had raised the issue with White House aides, but who asked not to be identified criticizing the president. Ambassador Richard Carlson, the vice chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neo-conservative think tank, added that he too was “shocked” at Bush’s denial of a pardon for Libby.
Gasp!
Since so many people got it wrong, allow me to explain.
A pardon is given by the executive. In his wisdom (cough) he may commute all or part of the sentence, substitute the sentence with a lesser one, or totally allow the person freedom. The maximum pardon is to expunge the record. Lesser sentences could include probation and agreements to never practise law / medicine / or whatever again, etc.
A commutation of the sentence is part of a pardon and in Scooter Libby’s case, his prison sentence (18 months I think) was commuted. That means Libby would not have to do jail time. But Libby still had a $25,000 fine (I believe, I’m not looking it up). That part was still part of Libby’s sentence and Libby had to pay it. Only there had been sufficient contributions to Libby’s Legal Defense Fund that the fine was paid from that. Therefore all penalties to Libby were accounted for.
The worse thing for Libby and something even Bush can’t fix is Libby is now disbarred. Even expunging the record of the conviction does not stop a Law Society from acting according to its bylaws.
So there was nothing Bush could have done to help Libby further anyway. Except return the $25,000 which would have made Bush look even worse.
# 27 jimbo said, who knows. It was unreadable”
So, still got that compulsive thing going?
Bush’s reputation is already bad enough and he didn’t want to sully it even further by being so obvious as to pardon Libby.
#25 PG Kelly
I think the only thing Bush got right in his 8 years was to pardon those two Boarder Patrol Agents who are doing time for shooting a Drug Runner.
I’m very happy they are now FREE!
Bush did not grant the agents pardons and they are not free. He commuted their sentence and their approximate release date is March 20th.
Cow-Paddy,
jimbo is not only correct, You can be very difficult to understand. Your thought process is so juvenile.
#34, Mr. Diesel,
I agree. This though, is something that should have happened last year. There was too much fishy evidence to leave two Agents in jail even until March 20.
#36 Mr Fusion
Oh hell yes it should have been done sooner. It was one of many things that pissed me off about Dubya.
I’m sure Mr. Libby will go on to get a job at Fox News with his ol buddy Karl Rove. Taking a fall for the team, gets you a job there. Oliver North’s there too. He’ll get to push the book he’s selling (they all do that at FOX) and probrably make more money than he needs. Yep, poor ol’ Scooter, makes me want to vomit!