Bush to commute Libby sentence

[AlexM]

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In addition, care to cite the source of that article? I trust it is from an unbiased source.


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You trust it's from fantasy land? I'm guessing not.

[Misfire]

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Participating in a cover-up about blowing the cover of a covert agent who is working on behalf of the USA? In retribution for *her husband's* political views? Disgusting. He didn't get enough time.

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Armitage leaked the name out of retribution?

[Taraz]

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Didn't the prosecutor go after Libby because he had reason to believe Cheney was involved and Libby was covering for him? I thought that was the whole deal on this point. Cheney had been working behind the scenes and Libby refused to talk about it.

Maybe this was a rumor or something, but I thought this was why the case was such a big deal.

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Nobody has answered this yet. I thought the major problem with Libby was that he was obstructing justice by not letting the special prosecutor know if any higher ups were involved.

[cpk]

I think the sentence was commuted instead of pardoned so that Libby could continue to take the Fifth. If he gets a pardon, he's immune from further prosecution, so if Congress calls him on the carpet, he'd have to testify. This way, he can just take the Fifth.

[blutarski]

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I think the sentence was commuted instead of pardoned so that Libby could continue to take the Fifth. If he gets a pardon, he's immune from further prosecution, so if Congress calls him on the carpet, he'd have to testify. This way, he can just take the Fifth.

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agreed. he'll get the full pardon on Bush's last day in office. I hope, if a Dem gets elected in '08, that he/she refuses to seal Bush's presidential papers. Instead, he/she sends them all to every major newspaper in the country.

[GoodCallYouWin]

In the first MSNBC Republican Debate they all said, with the exception of Tancredo, that Libby should not be pardoned. Now, with the exception of Ron Paul they all say it was a good idea to pardon him. These people have no idea what leadership means.

[bdk3clash]

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You're basically an "OMG Clinton did it" gimmick account.

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5300 posts, Ive mentioned Clinton about 4 times, and Im "basically a...gimmick account"???? STFU and go suck on Nancy Pelosi's botox.

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Granted, some of these are references to Hillary Clinton (without you mentioning "Hillary") or responses to other people mentioning "Clinton" (but not "Hillary") that you quoted, but not 128 of them.

[AzDesertRat]

Libby paid his quarter of a million fine yesterday---apparently it wasn't much of a hardship for him.

[bdk3clash]

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Plame was [not] covert...

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It's absolutely mind-boggling that you could make this statement. As I pointed out in this post, CIA director Michael Hayden, in a written letter to Congress, stated:

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During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was undercover. Her employment status with the CIA was classified information, prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958. At the time of the publication of Robert Novak's column on July 14, 2003, Ms. Wilson's CIA employment status was covert. This was classified information. Ms. Wilson served in senior management positions at the CIA in which she oversaw the work for other CIA employees and she attained the level of GS-14 — Step Six under the federal pay scale. Ms. Wilson worked on some of the most sensitive and highly secretive matters handled by the CIA. Ms. Wilson served at various times overseas for the CIA.

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As I asked Felix_Nietsche at the time,

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What information are you privy to that the director of the CIA isn't?

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[bdk3clash]

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I thought I read that Armitage wasn't charged because Libby's actions rendered it basically impossible to charge him with a crime.

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<slapping head with disbelief that someone could state this>
Armitage hates Bush.... He is in no way a supporter of Bush. Fitzfong knew that Armitage leaked Plame's identity to Novak from day-1 of the investigation. Source: Novak himself.

Armitage got a free pass from the Dems and Fitzfong because he was anti-Bush. No one with a rational mind could claim this prosecution of Libby was non-partisan while Armitage gets to walk without any consequences.... It was Armitage's BIG MOUTH which started this entire episode....

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Nice to hear from you. Glad to see you've changed your mind from this post, where you stated:

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This is my final word on the subject.

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Anyway, throughout this thread I've noticed a few claims being made that are inaccurate, one of which is that Armitage not being charged with a crime for leaking Plame's identity and covert status to Novak is some sort of smoking gun for there being no "underlying crime" with which to charge Libby. A few points on this strain of thought:

-As has been pointed out in this thread and elsewhere, the crimes for which Libby was indicted--perjury, making false statements, and obstruction of justice--do not require that the defendant perjured, made false statements, nor obstructed justice in relation to an "underlying crime" that he committed (or was accused of committing.)
-Secondly, the fact of Armitage being the leaker of Plame's identity and covert status to Novak has nothing to do with Libby leaking Plame's identity and overt status to other reporters before the publication of Novak's column on July 14th, 2003. Specifically, in the original indictment, prosecutors contended that Libby had potentially violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by disclosing Plame's covert status to New York Times reporter Judy Miller on at least three occassions.