Lewis "Scooter" Libby |
President Bush has commuted the 2 ?-year sentence given to former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for lying about a case involving the leak of a CIA agent's identity.
But he has left in place a fine totaling $250,000, as well as two years probation.
"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 30 months in prison."
The statement came just hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term. That applied pressure on the president, who had so far declined to respond to calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Libby in March was convicted of lying to authorities and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. He was the highest-ranking
White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.
"My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby," Bush continued. "The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and private citizen will be long-lasting."
But he said, the Constitution gives to the president "the power of clemency" to be used when "warranted."
"It is my judgment that a commutation of the prison term in Mr. Libby's case is an appropriate exercise of this power," he added.
Bush said he had not wanted to intervene until the appeals were exhausted. "But with the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision," he said.
The decision came just hours after Rush Limbaugh, the most-listened-to radio host in America, urged Bush to exercise his pardon power now for Libby.
"It's time for this pardon, it really is," Limbaugh said. "I don't see how it could lower his standing in the polls."
Limbaugh said everything about the Libby prosecution and conviction seemed "senseless."
"I can't really imagine what it's like to be Scooter Libby," Limbaugh said. "He's got to think he's in a dream or a nightmare or 'The Twilight Zone' – and his family as well."
Limbaugh was not alone calling for a pardon for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.
As WND reported, one of the jurors who helped convict Libby also hoped for one.
Ann Redington appears on MSNBC's 'Hardball' |
"I don't want him to go to jail," juror Ann Redington told Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" program. "Whether or not he should get one (a pardon), I don't know if I have a valid opinion. But I would like him to get one."
"It kind of bothers me that there was this whole big crime being investigated and he got caught up in the investigation as opposed to in the actual crime that was supposedly committed," she added.
Redington was part of the panel finding Libby guilty on four of five counts stemming from a federal investigation into the "outing" of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Libby was charged with lying and obstructing the investigation into who allegedly disclosed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame – the only indictment in Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's two-year investigation.
Fitzgerald probed whether Plame's identity was leaked by the White House as retaliation against her husband, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, for his assertion the Bush administration made false claims about Iraq's attempt to buy nuclear material in Africa.
But Fitzgerald failed to indict anyone for the underlying crime. Libby's charges pertained only to the investigation itself, not the 1982 act that made it illegal to blow a covert U.S. agent's cover.
Libby thought he had a good chance of overturning the conviction on appeal, and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to put his prison time on hold, but the court refused in a two-sentence ruling.
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