President Bush today commuted Scooter Libby's multi-year sentence to time served (that is, zero days). While I suspect Bush will wait to actually pardon Libby until his last day in office, January 20, 2009, this is just about as good. Bush seems to have waited until the last minute. The court had just ruled that Libby must begin his sentence while his appeal winds it way through the court system. This meant Libby would go to prison in the next couple of weeks.
It seems like The President let Libby sweat it out until the very last moment, possibly in hopes he would actually be clipped, or to let him stew on it so long that when it actually came, he had Libby in his pocket forevermore.
click White House website capture to enlarge...
From the administration-friendly Drudge Report:
Bush Spares Libby From Prison...Grant of Executive Clemency...Statement by
President...Special prosecutor challenges Bush assertion...
Obama: 'This is exactly the kind of politics we must change'
Fred Thompson: 'I am very happy for Scooter Libby'
Pelosi: 'The president shows his word is not to be
believed'Statement From Libby's Attorney...
Hillary: 'In this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice'
Why did the President exercise executive clemency to protect Libby? Obviously one reason is to protect the shadow president, VP Dick Cheney. As you know, All This Is That has speculated over the last year or so on other possible reasons, including various blackmail schemes involving variously, the Attorney General Roberto Gonzales, the Vice-President, and Donald Runmsfeld, among others. Recent All This Is That articles on the events and personalities surrounding the Scoter Libby fiasco and sentence commutation:
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