Libby: Probation’s All Right with MeAll parties agreed today that Scooter Libby should, in fact, serve two years of probation, most likely paving the way for the judge to conclude the same.
Judge Reggie Walton had asked Libby’s lawyer and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to weigh in on the special predicament created by the president’s commutation of Libby’s sentence last week: Bush had eliminated the jail time, but left in place the two-year period of supervised release that was to follow incarceration.
In his motion today, Fitzgerald argued that Libby’s probation should have started July 2nd, the date of the commutation. Fitzgerald also pointed out in passing that Libby’s sentence, which Bush judged “excessive,” had been on the “the low-end of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range.” In addition to Libby’s 30 months in prison and two years of probation, Libby was hit with a $250,000 fine, which he paid last week.
Libby’s lawyers echoed the White House line, made official in a letter from counsel Fred Fielding earlier today, that the president’s commutation should rule over any discrepancies with the sentencing statute.
You can read Fitzgerald’s argument here. It’s not clear when Judge Walton will make his final decision.