Monday, July 02, 2007

Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence - No Jail for Scooter


Scooter's not going to jail after all.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has commuted the prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, facing 30 months in prison after a federal court convicted him of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

Now, we all knew that Bush was going to pardon Libby. But, this is somewhat in the middle. No jail time, but he has to pay the fine - like that fine was a harship for Libby. This is no shock. The Constitution just doesn't apply to him or his friends.

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Additional report from ABC News

4 comments:

Brian said...

Against the decision of judge Reggie Walton, AND contrary to a unanimous appeals court ruling that said he had to go to prison.

He goes free for one of the biggest breaches of trust in recent memory.

But I guess he served his purpose... he was intended to be a convenient fall guy all along... to protect Cheney. Once sentenced...they planned to let him go free.

This is one of the reasons why the U.S. needs a justice department that is truly independent, and free from political pressure.

He goes free for what amounts to abuse of office and treason (crimes against Mrs. Plame, against the CIA, and against the nation)...while others get locked up for much more insignificant offenses... like having a bag of marijuana that they may have wanted to smoke. LORD HAVE MERCY!!!!!

I know he was only charged with lying to investigators in connection with this thing...but you can't lose sight of the larger crime. And this crime by him and his boss (breaching national security for political purposes) DID DO DAMAGE to the CIA and the projects that Plame was involved with.

Makes me wanna holler...

Brian said...

Yeah... we all knew it was coming... but it still pisses me off.

There really are two America's.... always has been. One for the haves and one for the have-nots. A dual system of justice, a dual system for healthcare, a dual economic system, a dual social system, a dual education system, and so forth. God help you if you are not among the priviledged.

If you are rich and connected, you can often buy your way out of jail.
But if you're poor.... you get a crappy Public Defender (who is overworked and underpaid) who is primarily concerned with "managing you" through the system rather than defending you- instead putting you on a conveyor belt straight to incarceration, by trying to get you to accept a plea deal. And this is the case, even if the defendant is not guilty and maintains their innocence.... they still try to seduce you (or frighten you) into pleading out.

Anonymous said...

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This is a little OT... but the "flava" is similar.

Anonymous said...

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