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Libby Lawyers Push for Wrist Slap
"Distinguished public servant. Generous mentor. Selfless friend. Devoted father. Convicted felon." So begins the sentencing memorandum prepared by Scooter Libby's attorneys (well, except for the last part). They're asking for no jail time.
Emptywheel has a typically comprehensive rundown of the memo.
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Josh
Zachary
When will the letters that were written on Libby's behalf be made public?
June 1, 2007 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Libby has two Ivy League degrees, decades of public service and a career as a white collar crime defense attorney. He knows the rules, how and why they can be broken, and what the costs are. His only surprise was that he was caught, in an administration that prided itself on always taking care of its laborers no matter what their behavior.
Mr. Libby knew exactly what he was doing when he walked off that cliff. He should receive the sentence recommended by Mr. Fitzgerald and start serving it immediately. Anything less, and it would seem impossible for Judge Walton to look any other convicted felon in the eye.
June 1, 2007 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well, he only helped destroy a CIA operation that was preventing the spread of WMDs. That's an extremely minor issue.
Or not.
June 1, 2007 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
It worked for Agnew.
And Nixon.
So I know that if I were convicted of a felony, the judge would agree with my lawyer that I had suffered enough from having got caught, indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and had my name in the paper.
Uh -- you know how some times you have to write a thought done before you can evaluate it for whether it's truth or wishful thinking?
If he actually does serve a few minutes behind bars, will he be allowed conjugal visits from Judy?
SC = front. As in, Libby's claim to have suffered enough is simply a front for his having caused Plame and Wilson to suffer more than enough.
June 1, 2007 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Libby deserves NO special treatment! Anyone else would be told that ignorance is no excuse -- and he had the resources to investigate what he was doing to find out whether or not it was kosher. Unless... if he was ordered to do it. Hmmmmm....
June 1, 2007 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Noboby asked me what I think of Scooter Libby. I think he is and always was a lying sack of shit. He was a member of the White House Iraq Group and, as such, devoted his time and talent to telling big fat lies to Americans so they would support an idiotic, senseless war.
Scooter Libby is in no small part responsible for the deaths of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of innocent people. He is also responsible for hundreds of millions of tax dollars being wasted.
If you deliberately perpetrate a tragic war with lies, what more does anyone need to know about your character?
June 1, 2007 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs Panstreppon
And just how long have you had this crush on Scooter?
June 1, 2007 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the same token, if you have obeyed the traffic laws your entire driving life, you should get a pass if you get pulled over for speeding. Gee, I wish I knew that when I got caught. 'Officer. I've been good the rest of the time, and have been a fine upstanding citizen. I'll take my get out of jail pass, now.' Of course, I didn't have the elite of my political class shilling for my clemency.
June 1, 2007 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Unusual and unique circumstances"?
I don't think lying on behalf of powerful people is all that unusual and unique. Perhaps they're talking about getting *caught* lying on behalf of powerful people ...
June 1, 2007 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fascinating...the similarities of Bob Dole denouncing Lawrence Walsh and the Iran Contra investigation.
June 1, 2007 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remarks By George Bush, 41st President of the United States,
At the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence
April 26, 1999
Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources.
They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.
{snip}
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/1999/bush_speech_042699.html
[Keywords: Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Valerie Plame Wilson, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, presidential advisor Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Patrick Fitzgerald, War on Terrorism, National security--United States, Intelligence service--United States, Intelligence service--Law and legislation--United States]
June 1, 2007 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope they drag him out of the court room to jail and give him what Fitz recommended and he is getting off EASY. He should be hung by the neck ti; he's dead.
How can these people sleep at night?
SC flag, we have to take our flag back from these criminals
June 1, 2007 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Libby's transgression was huge; he conspired to thwart an investigation that not only outed a CIA operative but that resource then became useless in the monitoring of Iran nuke operations.
Libby also made it possible for his conspirators (Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Fieth and others) to remain free.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send Libby to a real prison and put him in the general population. This will create de-facto ethics reform throughout government.
June 2, 2007 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
SEVERAL PEOPLE wish Libby to get a slap on the wrist.
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS want to see justice.
Libby's actions where an attack on our nation - fry him.
June 2, 2007 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps the court should slap around Libby's Lawyers with a disbarment investigation.
Why? Why not. The "why not" excuse to meddle was "good enough" for the GOP: Time to let Libby's lawyers endure the same meddlesome non-sense.
"Oh, what's this document. . . " US govt violated the law to intrude on legal counsel; US govt lawyers should be denied the same expectation of prvacy.
BELIEF: Law of reciprocity should be enforceable OUTSIDE COURT in dealing with US goverment officials
Example: New rule in a New land with New laws: "WHEN GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO ENFORCE THE LAW, any abuse a government does, the public should be able to lawfully impose the same abuse on any government official. Govt officials who lie -- even law enforcement-- should trigger an option by the public to lie to any government official to lie without consequences." Law enforcement makes problems for itself: By lying they show they are willing to mislead others; NEW RULE the public should be able to -- when officers lie -- to mislead the officers.
June 2, 2007 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I vote for Irwin being stuck in a population of convicted murders who have family members killed serving in Iraq.
I am not saying that his sentence be cut short buy an untimely death . . . BUT he should become intimate with continuous fear.
June 2, 2007 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plame is making millions off of her fake "outed covert agent" claim. She and her husband are both laughing their ways to the bank with their ridiculous sham. Libby should be (probably will be) pardoned.
June 3, 2007 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the judge lets this traitor off, he should also vacate the convictions of millions of small time offenders. Half the current prison population in the US is incarcerated for lesser offense.
Real traitors like the Skooter should see bars from the inside for multiple years.
June 3, 2007 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
greg cass is an ass!
June 3, 2007 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Libby is the fall guy but he knew what he was falling for. I thought Cheney, Rove and Lil Bush were going to hang him out to dry but he's kept his mouth shut and it seems now they're in the background pulling the strings on this "no jail time" crap or at least they're faking the funk - but as they've let things get this far, Libby must have pissed one of them off or they don't like him very much. Even so, Libby has been awfully damn loyal and they reward loyalty, love him or no.
Libby, you suck and you deserve to go to jail and so do Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rice with time off for repentance for Powell. Oh and that awful traitor Gonzales. Can't forget him.
June 3, 2007 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr Cass,
When attempting to communicate with folks living in the reality based world, please make an effort to get get your facts straight:
Friday, July 22, 2005
Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity Hearing
"The undisputed fact is that we have irreparably damaged our capability to collect human intelligence and thereby significantly diminished our capability to protect the American people."
James Marcinkowski Former CIA Case Officer James Marcinkowski has been the Deputy City Attorney in supervision of criminal prosecution in the Royal Oak City Attorney’s office since 1996. He was the Assistant Deputy City Attorney, also for the City of Royal Oak, though he maintained a private practice, specializing in criminal defense and as a General Counsel to Financial (Mortgage) Institution, from 1993 to 1997. Mr. Marcinkowski has also worked in the Computer Systems Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1974 to 1975, as an operations specialist for the United States Navy from 1975 to 1980, as a prosecutor intern in the St. Clair County Prosecutor’s Office from 1984 to 1985, as Operations Officer for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1985 to 1989, and Executive Staff Attorney in the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office in Michigan from 1989 to 1993. He received his B.A. in Political Science at Michigan State University in 1982 and his J.D. from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1985. He has been a member of the Michigan Bar Association since 1985. He has also been a member of the Prosecuting Attorney's Association of Michigan and the National District Attorney's Association.
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=898&Issue=Disclosure+of+CIA+Agent+Identity
June 3, 2007 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aren't you getting tired of those worn out talking points, Greg Cass? Who does it benefit to continue the lies put forward by the WH that are totally untrue?
Arguing that Libby deserves jail time, Fitzgerald says Plame was a covert agent.
Web Exclusive
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 7:26 p.m. ET May 29, 2007
May 29, 2007 - In new court filings, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has finally resolved one of the most disputed issues at the core of the long-running CIA leak controversy: Valerie Plame Wilson, he asserts, was a “covert” CIA officer who repeatedly traveled overseas using a “cover identity” in order to disguise her relationship with the agency.
Fitzgerald cites Wilson’s covert status as part of his argument—advanced in two strongly worded memos filed in recent days—that I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, should be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
Libby was convicted last March of four counts of obstruction of justice, false statements and perjury relating to what he knew, and with whom he shared information, about Valerie Plame Wilson in the weeks prior to her outing by columnist Robert Novak in a July 14, 2003, newspaper column. Libby, who is appealing the verdict, is due to be sentenced next Tuesday by U.S. Judge Reggie Walton—an event that could well reignite a fierce political controversy over whether President Bush should pardon the former Cheney aide.
Libby’s lawyers, and many conservative partisans of his cause, have argued that Libby should be spared prison in part because there was no underlying crime in the disclosure of Valerie Wilson’s identity. (As his trial established, Wilson’s identity was leaked to a number of reporters by several Bush administration officials who were interested in discrediting the attacks by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, on the White House’s handling of Iraq pre-war intelligence.)
-snip
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18927332/
June 3, 2007 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink