Libby sentenced to 30 months

June 5, 2007

In March, Scooter Libby, a top aide in the Bush White House, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame’s identity. Today, he was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.

“People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem,” U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said.

Libby is, as the AP noted, the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since several officials in Reagan’s White House were convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Judge Walton also fined Libby $250,000 and placed him on probation for two years following his release from prison. The conventional wisdom suggested Libby might get between 12 and 15 months, so today’s sentence is steeper than some expected, though it is less than the three-year sentence recommended by Patrick Fitzgerald. (The sentence includes 30 months for obstruction and 15 months for the other charges, though they will run concurrently.)

No word yet on whether Libby will remain free during his appeal. Also no word yet on whether a presidential pardon may be in Libby’s future.

As for analysis of all of this, I suppose the story isn’t officially over until Libby runs out of appeals, but four years after the Bush gang undermined national security by outing a covert CIA operative, I can’t help but think about how pathetic the sordid story really is.

I won’t bother rehashing all the details, but Libby climbed to the top of political power in DC, and then, suffering from an acute case of Bush White House Blindness, risked it all to go after a perceived enemy.

Libby intentionally leaked the name of an undercover agent. He did so for the cheapest and most senseless of reasons — because the agent’s spouse was making it harder for Libby and his friends to lie about a war. Then, when push came to shove, Libby lied about his conduct under oath.

Arthur Brown, a former CIA division chief, described Libby’s behavior as the “moral equivalent to exposing forward deployed military units.”

We’ll no doubt hear plenty of talk from White House allies about the need for sympathy, and the usual talking points about “underlying crimes,” but today’s sentence looks like justice to me.

Unfortunately, he won’t be sharing his cell with “bubba.”

  • Have you seen Scooter’s love letters?

    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0605071libby1.html

    I highly recommend Mary Matalin’s for sheer “what will we tell the children” value… it really is that embarrassing; Doug Feith’s to confirm he is genuinely, the dumbest man on the planet; and Paul Wolfowitz’s for plain chutzpah.

    And lastly, anyone inclined to flame a wingnut today… tell them you reckon Bush will come to Scooter’s rescue. Because if nothing else, Bush knows how to do amnesty.

  • Freaking criminal scum. Hope he rots in jail until Bush breaks him out with a pardon.

  • It won’t feel like justice until the rest of the perps, the ones still in the White House, are also behind bars.

  • Letters supporting Scooter are posted over at thesmokinggun.com. To see all of the posted letters (redacted to hide personal information–address, names of children, etc.) you need to page through the letters using the side tabs of “next” and “previous.”

    The letter written by former senator Alan Simpson is quite interesting–it stresses loyalty.

    LINK: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0605071libby1.html

    P.S. – Hillary should be pressured to fire James Carville from any role in her campaign.

  • Wolfie wrote four pages worth of drivel about Scooter. He must have a lot of time on his hands while he sits around collecting his salary at the World Bank waiting for his “retirement”.

  • Looks like this incident and all the sad and twisted commentary and bloviating from the right surrounding it should really put an end to the claim that the GOP/conservatives are the “rule of law” party.

  • Judge Walton, meet Right Wing Attack Machine…Right Wing Attack Machine, meet Judge Walton.

  • A callous slaughter of “I fought the Law” in “honor” Scooter Libby, the best friend of nuclear proliferators everywhere.

    Leaking names for the Dark One
    I broke the law and Iran won (twice)
    I begged for money cause I had none
    I broke the law and Iran won (twice)

    I left Dick Cheney and it feels so bad
    Guess my job is gone
    He’s the best boss that I ever had
    I broke the law and Iran won
    I broke the law and Iran won

    Screwin the Wilsons with poli-tics
    I broke the law and Iran won (twice)
    I screwed my nation and I lost my case
    I broke the law and Iran won (twice)

    Ratted out the spooks and it feels so good
    Guess the (nuclear arms) race is on
    Valerie’s the hottest secret I ever spilled
    I broke the law and Iran won
    I broke the law and Iran won

  • Well, let’s see…

    First, the argument was that there was no real crime, because Plame was not covert and “everyone knew” she worked at the CIA, that this whole investigation was a waste of time. The right wing was certain there would be no indictments.

    When the indictments came, the right went nuts saying that this was a clear abuse of prosecutorial authority, and that not being able to remember things was not a crime. And Valerie Plame was not covert.

    When the trial started, they were still saying that no jury would convict Libby for having a bad memory – and that Valerie Plame was not covert.

    When the verdict came in, they started saying that he would only get a slap on the wrist and he would be pardoned.

    Well, 30 months is not a slap on the wrist, and I may be alone in this, but I don’t think he’s going to win on appeal, or get a pardon.

    And Valerie Plame was covert.

  • Let us all hope for an immediate sentence that does not allow him to stay free until all of his appeals run out, so he can be pardoned on the last day of Bush’s term. If Bush is going to pardon him, let’s get it out in the open now. I think Bush will pardon him rather than let him go to jail because Bush has very little to lose in terms of public perception now. Libby probably knows where the bodies are buried, so I don’t think Bush/Cheney will risk him making any type of deal with the prosecutor. Or is it too late for him to cut a deal? I’m not sure of how it works.

  • GRACIOUS–it is never too late. Abramoff is still working his sentence from his cell.

  • So, when I read all those letters from Libby’s fans, I can’t help but wonder why, if Libby is a man of such integrity, so intelligent, and such a dedicated public servant, he could bring himself to lie to federal investigators and obstruct justice to protect an effort to expose a CIA officer.

    All of these testimonials to his fine character make it seem like we’d want to really punish him, since the violation of the law is more heinous when a ‘good man’ does it.

    And I had to laugh out loud at Mary Matalin /James Carville’s overwrought “but what about the children???’ missive. Seems like the way for “Mr. Scooter” to demonstrate his vaunted concern for families would have been by not breaking several federal laws. (BTW, can we finally stop calling Carville a Democratic operative now?)

  • When I was reading Matalin’s letter – and trying not to gag – where she gushed on and on about Libby’s love of children and family and the ordeal for the kids, I couldn’t help but wonder if Libby ever gave one thought to Valerie Wilson’s children.

    I’m guessing not.

    And Hillary needs to distance herself from Carville, like, yesterday.

  • This WH is so Owellian they think their treasonous act of outing a covert CIA agent was somehow patriotic. These people in the WH are smarmy dumbfucks. I just wish they’d go away! -Kevo

  • Ha, Ha!!! Thanks, Slip Kid, for the high comedy Mary Matalin provided. I have no doubt she was sincere, which says quite a bit about the mental state of someone who can expect sympathy because the Cheney kids missed Hallowe’en trick-or-treating, without any mention of all the kids whose daddy was in a body bag in some depot, waiting to be shipped back to the States. That part isn’t funny at all, but it says something about your ability to empathize being directly proportional to your personal sacrifice.

    Look on the bright side, Scooter – think of the erotic novel you’ll be able to write when you get out.

  • Carville did what any good husband, with proper family values would do: listened to his wife and followed her lead.

  • Scooter Libby’s children,–Hal Libby and Ricki Libby, as revealed by court documents–are each likely to grow up to be the same kind of smug, sleazy slimeball that their father is. They’ll smirk all the way to high-paying jobs that they get not because of merit but because of connections. Irve Lewis Libby’s children, Libby’s wife, and Libby himself–what a family of cheap, disgusting whores, lower than a toothless crack whore living in a cardboard box and selling blow jobs for a living.

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