Libby to be imprisoned during appeal

June 14, 2007

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a Bush appointee, was apparently receiving death threats while mulling whether to delay Scooter Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence pending appeal.

I guess he wasn’t intimidated.

A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the CIA leak case, a ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within weeks.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton’s decision will send Libby’s attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force President Bush to consider calls from Libby’s supporters to pardon the former aide.

No date was set for Libby to report to prison but it’s expected to be within six to eight weeks. That will be left up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which will also select a facility.

“Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report,” Walton said.

Walton started off skeptical of the notion that Libby should be free during his appeal(s), and remained that way. Indeed, responding to a brief filed by 12 prominent law professors (including Bork) who supported Libby’s request, the judge waved it off as “not something I would expect from a first-year in law school.”

Ouch.

So, what happens now?

* Libby’s lawyers “will seek an emergency order delaying the sentence.” As I understand it, courts practically never intervene to rule an appeal before a convicted felon has to report to jail. Then again, Libby has some powerful friends, so we’ll see.

* Libby won’t have to report to jail literally today. The judge said it would take 45 days to get Libby behind bars.

* FDL has been live-blogging all morning from the courthouse and has a detailed report on the proceedings.

* Libby has a new appellate legal team, which suggests he’s still trying to win this in court, not relying on the president to get him out of this jam.

* And there’s still no word on a pardon, though I suspect the far-right calls to the White House are about to get far more intense.

Stay tuned.

In a Washington court room today, Americans learned that Judge Reggie Walton has received threatening phone calls and letters for his sentence of Scooter Libby. Apparently, from John Cornyn, Tom Delay and Ann Coulter to the right-wing grassroots, threatening judges from the Supreme Court on down is now business as usual for the American conservative movement.

For the details, see:
“Libby Court’s Walton Latest Target of Right-Wing Threats to Judges.”

  • What Walton – good man, there – did was to precipitate a juicy showdown with Cheney and Bush.

    Let’s sit back and enjoy and see if Bush NOW pardon’s Libby.

  • I assume any attack on Walton must be racist…at least going by the Davis/Mica/Shays playbook.

  • No worries, we’re going to get some of them Regent trained Lawyers on this ASAP.

  • Scooter Libby is the Paris Hilton of Washington politics. He thought that breaking the law wouldn’t actually mean he’d get punished — after all, don’t we know who he is? Glad to see there is still a part of our legal apparatus that isn’t thoroughly corrupted yet.

  • I sure hope a few of the people who were threatening the judge get to go to jail too. But I guess if Ann Coulter gets to be on TV maybe they can too.

  • I think the conservative judge is giving his absolute ruling and this is biting the Republicans back.

    Repugs are all for punishment for crimes except for them. Somehow they think they get a “Get out of Jail” card because they are republicans. It shows how they view the law as absolute for “everyone else” but not for them. They seem to hold themselves to a different standard and these actions for an appeal shows their lack of legal legitimacy – and the judge knows it.

  • I guess I’m just too unrefined to appreciate it, myself being just an average bumpkin from Illinois, but I’m pretty sure that if I, or other individuals of less wealth than Mr. Liddy and his ReThug masters, were found guilty of perjury in federal court, that my happy-ass would be thrown in the slammer at Marion as fast as Alberto Gonzales can say “I don’t recall.” The fact that Mr. Libby is a free man today is an assault on democracy, if you ask me.

    At the risk of inviting another lengthy debate with Danny, let me just say that it is my contention that democracy requires the equal application of the law, regardless of individual status. With this unequal application of the law favoring the uber-wealthy and privileged, as I see things, “democracy” is only an insolent facade for plutocracy.

  • I am still waiting for them to ask him if he believes dinosaurs were on the Ark.

    Can you imagine the lovely admixture of blather that would escape that puss of his?

  • Not really #8. There’s the spirit of the law and then there’s how it actually works. Just because it doesn’t, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t or that it doesn’t most of the time. I believe people are starting to realize how wealth and privilege has gotten out of control as far as the rule of law is concerned to the point of paying attention to judicial appointments and clamoring for more oversight of our Judicial system.
    We are not a complete Plutocracy yet and in fact I believe we will be moving more in the opposite direction out of necessity as privilege becomes more transparent. Hope so anyway…after Bush.

  • JKap,

    That’s fine, though it helps to know a little something about how the federal criminal justice system actually works before you start calling things assaults on democracy. It isn’t terribly uncommon for there to be a couple of months’ interlude between the imposition of sentence and the date on which the defendant has to report to prison– people do need a little bit of time to get their affairs in order before reporting to jail for an extended period, after all. You can question the wisdom of that policy if you like, but I see no indication that Libby is getting any special treatment in that way.

  • Conservative right wing credo:

    Only registred Democrats and people named Clinton should get jailed for perjury and obstruction. These aren’t even crimes if you are a Republican.

  • To my knowledge, things like “he has performed admirable service to his country for xxx years ..” may be consideraqtions in sentencing. Once the sentence is determined, well, that’s it. If this were a young minority male caught and convicted of possessing a significant quantity drugs, who also happened to have put in multitudinous hours in voluntary community service over the course of his life, I doubt that any conservative would be arguing for a pardon.
    And my argument doesn’t even take into account the question of whether Mr. Libby actually performed services that benefitted the country.
    Martha did her time. Scooter can too.

  • Many of us are angry with this administration. To see one of the architects of the administration, which has lied and manipulated us into the disastrous war in Iraq, actually go to jail…for lying..gives us a lift. If only it could have been Rove or Wolfowitz!.

    We must be satisfied with what we can get.

  • I know Bork and Dershowitz are two of the twelve taken to task by Judge Walton. Does anyone know who the others are?

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