Should Libby Be Pardoned?

Pardoning libby would be an interesting political ploy to make pardons an issue. If Hillary gets the democratic nomination, it would be good for the republicans to put this issue out there and bring up all the old scandal of Bill Clinton's various pardons.

 

I honestly view the whole thing - including the Clinton brouhaha - as politics, and just politics.

He will get pardoned.

But I really don't care either way.

 

He should be pardoned.

But it won't happen now, if at all.

 

==No he should not be pardoned but really who cares? I don't. They are all crooks anyways.

 

He should be sentenced to be handcuffed to Janet Reno for 5 years.

 

Good idea.:thumbs:

But only if she's jailed with him.

 

==Isn't there a law against cruel and unusual punishment?

 

Is Libby even eligible for a pardon?

§ 1.2 Eligibility for filing petition for pardon. No petition for pardon should be filed until the expiration of a waiting period of at least five years after the date of the release of the petitioner from confinement or, in case no prison sentence was imposed, until the expiration of a period of at least five years after the date of the conviction of the petitioner. Generally, no petition should be submitted by a person who is on probation, parole, or supervised release.



SOURCE

 

§ 1.11 Advisory nature of regulations.

The regulations contained in this part are advisory only and for the internal guidance of Department of Justice personnel. They create no enforceable rights in persons applying for executive clemency, nor do they restrict the authority granted to the President under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.



Your source.

 

It won't make a dimes difference if he is pardoned. Libby will always be deemed guilty by the majority of public opinion and so will Dick Cheney.

 

What should VP Cheney be prosecuted for?

Scooter was prosecuted for "lying" to a grand jury investigating a non-crime.

The real source of the (legal) identity leak was known by the prosecuter prior to the prosecution of Libby. Maybe even prior to the "lie" Scooter told to the grand jury. The whole thing seems a bit silly to me.


Edited to add: If Scooter Libby indeed did the crime, he should do the time. That is not how things usually work in Washington. Clinton lied to a grand jury, many people argued he was innocent because he should not have been questioned in the first place (no crime). What is the difference?

 

I understand that these are guidlines. Bush refers to them as "a procedure" in an interview with Cavuto when asked about the Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean case. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how serious he takes this procedure when one of his own is involved.

 

Some people seem to think that lying to the American people about a forged document among other dubious "evidence" used to justify a needless war in Iraq that was planned long before 9/11 is worth investigating further. Pretty silly huh?

 

I think that President Bush will pardon Libby as he is going out the door of the White House on or before January 20, 2009.

 

Because he's Dick Cheney.

 

That about sums it up, doesn't it?

Like him or not, Cheney did not commit a crime in relation to this investigation, and, if Scooter had not been questioned, there would have been no crime to prosecute period.

 

Cheney is not being prosecuted but in the realm of Public opinion he is being judged for what his role in the scandal was percieved to be.
Political pundits who are forming public opinion can pretty much hamper the progress that the GOP had gained at one time. Just as it happened once before with Watergate it seems that history is repeating itself once again. Therefore what I was trying to point out is that Federal trials are not all that necessary to indicate a persons guilt but it does make it more difficult to overcome. An exception would be the Iran-Contra scandal but that was at a time when the GOP had excellent political pundits in their corner, unlike a lot todays pundits who base their opinions on blips of soundbites.

 

T here are lies and there are memory lapses. Bill Clinton denied under oath having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Unless you're Wilt Chamberlain, sex is not the kind of thing that you forget easily. Sandy Berger denied stuffing classified documents in his pants, an act not quite as elaborate as sex, but still involving a lot of muscle memory, and unlikely to have been honestly forgotten.


Scooter Libby has just been convicted for four felonies that could theoretically give him 25 years in jail for ... what? Misstating when he first heard a certain piece of information, namely the identity of Joe Wilson's wife.


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