Bwaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

WASHINGTON (AP) A federal appeals court has refused to delay the imprisonment of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was sentenced in the CIA leak case.

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
from SFGate.com

For years he was known as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to President Bush. On Wednesday, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby became federal inmate No. 28301-016.

Libby, who was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity, faces 2 1/2 years in prison.

The assignment of an inmate number by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons represents another step on the road to prison. Inmate numbers stay with prisoners even after their release.

Libby, however, is hoping that an appeals court will intervene and put the sentence on hold before he is ordered to surrender.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has not indicated how quickly it will rule. Lawyers in the case said Libby had not yet been assigned to a prison or given a date to surrender.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald opposes Libby’s bid to delay his prison term. He says Libby does not have a good chance of having his conviction overturned and should begin serving prison time immediately.

Libby’s friends have asked President Bush to step in and pardon him, a request that Bush has sidestepped while the legal case drags on.

Libby, 56, is the only person charged in the leak scandal, which erupted after CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity was revealed in a 2003 syndicated newspaper column. Libby was not the source for that leak and neither of the two Bush administration officials who provided the information were ever charged.

When confronted by prosecutors and FBI agents, however, Libby lied about how he learned about Plame and whom he told, a jury found. He is the highest-ranking White House official sentenced to prison since the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s.

The Bureau of Prisons does not say where its inmates will serve until they begin their sentence. Normally, prisoners are assigned to facilities within 200 miles of home. As a nonviolent, first-time offender, Libby likely will be placed in a minimum security prison camp.

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

Oh, Oh! Look at the picture. Libby has that evil little smirk on his little neo-con face again! - JS

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who faces an imminent prison term in the CIA leak case, asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to step in and delay the sentence.

The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. A federal judge has denied a request to stay the sentence while Libby appeals his conviction.

In a motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Libby argued that that ruling was inappropriate. He said he has a good chance of having his conviction overturned on appeal and should not have to serve jail time while the court challenge plays out.

“The Bureau of Prisons will shortly designate a prison facility and direct Libby to report within a period of two to three weeks after designation,” his attorneys wrote. “Accordingly, we respectfully ask that the court expedite action on this application.”

The request will be considered by a three-judge panel of the court. By policy, the court does not disclose which judges are on the panel until a decision is made.

“The president feels terribly for Scooter, his wife and their young children, and all that they’re going through.”

Isn’t that nice. The president feels terribly for Scooter, and his wife, and their young children! Awwwww how sweet. He feels sorry for the treasonous, lying sack of shit who outed a COVERT CIA agent. Gee, I wonder if he feels sorry for that COVERT CIA agent…..and her husband…..and her young children. I wonder if he feels sorry that Scooter Boy and Big Dick ruined her career. Nawwww…..he wouldn’t, because they didn’t serve His Heinyness well!!

From the Washington Post:

By Dan Froomkin

The White House has officially ruled out the possibility of a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby until he exhausts the appeals process — a timetable that is all but certain to lead to significant prison time for the former top aide to Vice President Cheney.

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton yesterday ordered Libby to start serving his 30-month sentence in a matter of weeks. Libby’s appeal will presumably take months if not years.

Libby can avoid prison time only if one of two things happens soon: A special panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overrules Walton and allows Libby to remain free pending appeal; or Bush goes back on his word and grants a pardon while the appeal is still pending. Both are highly unlikely.

White House officials yesterday amplified earlier assertions that Bush is holding off on any action for the foreseeable future.

Read more »

By DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writer
from Yahoo! News

CHICAGO - Republican president candidate Mitt Romney, who denied every pardon or commutation during his term as Massachusetts governor, said Thursday a pardon for former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby deserves a close examination.

“I took a careful review during my term as governor of the people that were brought forward. That doesn’t mean I pardoned them, but I took a careful review. I think this deserves a very careful review,” Romney told The Associated Press in a brief interview.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted in March of lying to investigators and obstructing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s inquiry into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s identity. A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for Libby in the case.

Speaking with reporters earlier in Chicago, Romney was asked about the possibility of a pardon.

“I think the prosecutor may well have abused prosecutorial discretion by pursuing the investigation after he had learned that the source of the leak was Richard Armitage,” Romney said. “He knew that there was, therefore, not a crime committed and yet, he proceeded with the investigation knowing that there was no crime to pursue.

“That abuse of prosecutorial discretion justifies a very careful look,” he said.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera contends Romney is dodging a fundamental question.

By Matt Apuzzo
The Associated Press

Washington - The U.S. judge who oversaw the CIA leak trial of a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he received threatening letters and phone calls after sentencing I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to prison.

“I received a number of angry, harassing mean’spirited phone calls and letters,” District Judge Reggie B. Walton said. “Some of those were wishing bad things on me and my family.”

Walton made the remarks as he opened a hearing into whether to delay Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence. He said he was holding the letters in case something happened but said they would have no effect on Thursday’s decision.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Cheney argues that he should not have to report to prison until his appeals have run out.

Walton has said he is not inclined to grant that request. But even if he rules that way, it is unlikely Libby would be taken away in handcuffs. Rather, it would lead to more maneuvering in Libby’s legal fight.

Libby’s newly formed appellate team - Lawrence S. Robbins and Mark Stancil - are standing by. If Libby loses Thursday, his lawyers have said they will ask an appeals court for an emergency order delaying the sentence. Because one of the issues in the appeal is whether Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had the authority to charge Libby, defense lawyers also could ask the Supreme Court to step in.

Then there is the pardon question.

Libby’s supporters have called for President George W. Bush to wipe away Libby’s convictions. Bush publicly has sidestepped pardon questions, saying he wants to let the legal case play out.

If Bush were to decide to issue a pardon, a delay would give him more flexibility to pick a time that makes the most political sense.

Bush’s father pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra arms and money affair on Christmas Eve 1992. President Bill Clinton pardoned more than 100 people on his way out the White House in 2001.

read more at TRUTHOUT

So much for the Bush administration being a “beyond reproach” alternative to the Clinton administration. -Joe Sudbay, AmericaBlog writer

I’ll wager that Libby gets his pardon AND the republicans will keep their “beyond reproach” title. Why not? There won’t be any outrage.

By Joe Sudbay, AmericaBlog:

CNN reports that Scooter Libby must go to jail. The judge just ruled Libby cannot stay free while he appeals his case. That means that the issue of Bush pardoning Scooter is now ripe. Either Bush pardons Scooter now, or Scooter spends the rest of the Bush term, pending appeal, in jail. The GOP base won’t stand for Scooter doing time, but how much more damage can Bush take, is Bush willing to take, to his approval ratings? So much for the Bush administration being a “beyond reproach” alternative to the Clinton administration.

Does anyone think he’ll serve even a day?

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is headed back to court to try to forestall his 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, planned to ask a federal judge Thursday to put the sentence on hold while he appeals his perjury and obstruction conviction.

It would be a longshot request before a judge who has already said he sees no reason to grant it.

But even if U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton were to order Libby to prison at Thursday’s hearing, it is unlikely Libby would be taken away in handcuffs. Rather, it would lead to more maneuvering in Libby’s legal fight.

If they lose Thursday, Libby’s lawyers have said they will ask an appeals court for an emergency order delaying the sentence. Because one of the issues in the appeal is whether Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had the authority to charge Libby, defense lawyers also could ask the Supreme Court to step in.

More at YahooNews

Ex-White House aide’s lies violated the law, impeded federal inquiry

from the USA Today Editorial Board

A federal jury had barely finished pronouncing former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in March when Republican loyalists began calling for President Bush to pardon him.

Now, with Libby’s stiff sentence this week, the chorus is singing again. In Tuesday night’s GOP presidential debate, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Tom Tancredo endorsed a pardon for Libby; several other candidates said they’d consider it. The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard and other conservative voices joined the clamor.

It’s true that the prosecution of Libby was, like other famous Washington investigations before it, about a coverup without an underlying crime. It’s also true that his sentence -30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine ’seems somewhat harsh for a first-time, white-collar offender. Even so, he doesn’t deserve a presidential pardon and shouldn’t get one.

While the lead-up to the trial is complicated, what Libby did is not. Simply put, the jury found ample evidence that Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff lied to federal agents and a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Libby, a veteran lawyer and high-placed Washington official, certainly knew he was supposed to tell the truth. He had excellent legal counsel. The jurors found it inconceivable that he simply had a faulty memory about the events.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald likened Libby’s lies to throwing sand in the face of an umpire, obscuring the ump’s vision. And this was no ballgame. If people were allowed to lie to the FBI, prosecutors and grand jurors with impunity, investigating crimes would become impossible.

Pardoning Libby would send a message that it’s OK to attempt to thwart the criminal justice system if you’re an important player in Washington. Washington already sends enough messages of that sort.

A pardon would also say that people who work for the White House are above the law if they think they’re doing the president’s bidding, because the president could always let them off the hook.

Some of those calling for a pardon are being hypocritical. The same people who believed it was right to impeach President Clinton over lies about sex now say it was wrong to prosecute a White House official for lies about irresponsibly leaking a CIA officer’s name in a political fight.

read more at USA TODAY

Keith Olbermann talks with Joe Wilson about Libby’s sentence.

By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer

For nearly seven years, the office of the vice president has been a virtual black hole for information about the Bush administration. But yesterday, a series of letters aimed at securing leniency for Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, provided a small, if selective, window on the world of Cheney and his aides.

Lewis A. Hoffman, the vice president’s White House physician, asked Judge Reggie B. Walton to understand “the mindset that was pervasive” in the vice president’s office after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the “real fear about what the future held.”

“I can tell you for certain that Mr. Libby worked himself to exhaustion day after day,” Hoffman wrote in a letter dated April 26. “This is a testimony to his devotion to our nation and the Vice President. I also believe that such continuous stress and total exhaustion is just the setting where a person might honestly confuse what he said to who on what day.”

Elizabeth A. Denny, who worked with Libby as the vice president’s social secretary, wrote that her “heart broke” the day Libby walked out of the White House after his indictment on perjury charges in 2005. “I could feel a vacuum sucking the wind out of our office, out of the White House,” she said. “I could feel his absence immediately in a very large way. I still can’t figure it out.”

Full article and a list of letter writers at the Washington Post

By Dan Froomkin

Scooter Libby today expressed no remorse, and Judge Reggie B. Walton showed no mercy.

The former vice presidential chief of staff spoke only briefly at his sentencing hearing in federal court today, thanking courtroom personnel for their kindness during his trial and saying: “It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider along with the jury verdict my whole life. Thank you your honor.”

Libby’s defense team had asked for probation. But Walton sentenced Libby to two and a half years in prison and fined him $250,000. Libby was found guilty in March of obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury and the FBI about his disclosure of former CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity to reporters.

Walton put off another important decision, however. Saying he was not inclined to grant the defense’s request that Libby be allowed to remain free on appeal, Walton nevertheless put off his decision until a June 14 hearing.

Ever since Libby was convicted, his supporters have been urging President Bush to grant him a pardon. If Libby remains free on appeal, Bush would probably postpone such a hugely controversial decision, potentially until his last days in office. If Libby is sent to prison, however, that would likely spark an immediate and furious internecine battle within his administration.

Continue reading at the Washington Post

It’s official. Only in America can a hungry, homeless man get more prison time for stealing food than that of someone committing treason. Our Founding Fathers must be roiling in their graves!

What’s worse, Libby won’t see one day behind bars.

CNN.com:

Libby Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison

WASHINGTON (CNN) – I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators about what he told reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose name was leaked to the media in 2003.

He also was fined $250,000. Libby was convicted March 6 of four counts in a five-count indictment alleging perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators. He plans to appeal the verdict.

Libby was found guilty in March of lying to investigators about what he told reporters about Valerie Plame, whose identity as a CIA operative was leaked to the media in 2003.

Libby has maintained his innocence ever since he was indicted and resigned in October 2005.

On Tuesday, the judge released dozens of letters written to him by Libby’s supporters and detractors, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.
[...]

Another person, whose signature was redacted, wrote, “I am writing to urge that Scooter Libby receive the maximum possible sentence. Due to the crimes for which he was convicted, we may never know of the more substantial criminal activities for which he served as a firewall.”

Commentary: As the verdict for Scooter Libby fast approaches, a former federal prosecutor considers his fate. - By Elizabeth de la Vega

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com

If the memorandum filed by defense attorneys in anticipation of former top White House adviser I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s June 5th sentencing is any indication, it appears that Libby — one of the highest White House officials ever convicted of a felony — has learned precisely nothing from his trial and conviction on charges of false statements, obstruction of justice, and perjury.

Libby’s lawyers admit — because they have to — that their client, a man with three decades of executive-level federal government service, disseminated classified information about the status of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson in response to public criticism of the Bush administration by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. They nevertheless insist that this, at best, reckless (and, far more likely, intentional) act is not only not illegal, but not even wrong.

Unfortunately for Libby, this in-your-face position also has a certain shoot-yourself-in-the-foot quality. Libby is arguing for a probationary sentence, which is considerably more lenient than that called for by the Sentencing Guidelines. An essential factor every judge must consider in deciding whether to depart from the guidelines to impose such a light sentence is whether it would sufficiently deter others from similar misconduct.

Having aggressively argued that there was neither crime, nor misconduct, how do Libby’s lawyers then address the issue of deterrence? They argue that Libby has experienced a “very public fall from grace” and that this “dire consequence” alone would be enough to “warn the public — and high ranking government officials in particular — that it is important to take FBI and grand jury investigations very seriously.” This is an exquisite expression of the entitlement and arrogance that spawned the administration’s smear campaign against Joseph Wilson in the first place. It could only be more pointedly evocative of utter contempt for the rule of law if it were followed by a sneer emoticon.

read more at Mother Jones

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

WASHINGTON - Lawyers, politicians and pundits have had their say for years. Now, as former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby faces sentencing in the
CIA leak trial, the world may hear from someone new: Libby himself.

Libby has not spoken publicly about the case since his 2005 indictment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Throughout his month-long trial, and following his conviction in March, he always let his lawyers do the talking.

On Tuesday, however, before U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton hands down a sentence, he will ask the former vice presidential chief of staff whether he has anything to say.

Defense attorneys, who argue that Libby should not have to serve any jail time, have not said how Libby will respond. It’s a delicate decision, one made more difficult because Libby has maintained his innocence and is appealing his conviction.

“The only thing any sentencing judge wants to hear is remorse, and if they don’t think it comes from the heart or they think they’re only sorry for getting caught, for losing their job, or for going to jail, it doesn’t count,” said Hugh Keefe, a Connecticut defense attorney who teaches trial advocacy at Yale University.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS