The inevitable talk of Libby’s pardon

June 19, 2006

With [tag]Patrick Fitzgerald[/tag]’s criminal investigation into the [tag]Plame[/tag] scandal apparently over, the focus now shifts to [tag]Scooter Libby[/tag]’s criminal trial, which could be a major source of embarrassment for the Bush White House.

That is, unless the president intervenes.

Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the [tag]CIA[/tag] [tag]leak[/tag] probe, President George W. [tag]Bush[/tag] must weigh whether to [tag]pardon[/tag] former vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” [tag]Libby[/tag], the only one indicted in the three-year investigation.

Speculation about a pardon began in late October, soon after Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald unsealed the perjury indictment of Libby, and it continued last week after Fitzgerald chose not to charge [tag]Rove[/tag].

“I think ultimately, of course, there are going to be pardons,” said Joseph diGenova, a former prosecutor and an old Washington hand who shares that view with many pundits. “These are the kinds of cases in which historically presidents have given pardons,” said the veteran Republican attorney.

Newsday speculated that Libby seems to be “goading the [tag]White House[/tag] into issuing a pardon” by demanding sensitive, sometimes embarrassing, materials. For that matter, the possibility of Dick Cheney’s testimony in Libby’s trial is an unpleasant scenario for the Bush gang, which a pardon would eliminate.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on, particularly next year. Newsday suggested that a Libby pardon could come almost immediately after the midterm elections if Republicans maintain their majorities because the [tag]president[/tag] knows the congressional GOP does not believe in oversight or accountability. If Dems retake the majority, Bush would likely use Libby’s trial “as an excuse not to cooperate with any congressional investigations into the leak.” Stay tuned.

Here I thought Boy George II wasn’t pardoning Libby because he and Tony Snow don’t want to answer the question “Why haven’t you fired Rove”.

Of course, if the Republican’ts lose the House and Senate in November, Boy George II could fire Rove for that 😉

But I’m not expecting a pardon. The harder Libby “pushes” for it, the more he is going to get Boy George II’s back up. After all, loyalty only flows in one direction in the Texas Mafia.

  • His dad pardoned the people responsible for trying to appease Iran (who trained and financed the bombers that killed US Marines in Beirut) with weapons sales, so as to cover up his own role in this act of treason.

    So a pardon here really wouldn’t suprise me.

  • “His dad pardoned the people responsible for trying to appease Iran…” – 2Manchu

    All the more reason Boy George II won’t pardon Libby. The son has already proven himself greater than the father by winning re-election (depending on how much you believe Ohio 😉 ), he will have no reason to follow in his father’s footsteps on this.

  • Regardless of the midterms, Bush will have no other choice but to pardon the guy. A trial could bring about an entire slew of nasties that the administration really doesn’t want out in the open—some of which could turn a “still-GOP” Congress (should they manage to squeak a win in four-and-a-half months) into an anti-Bush Congress. “Frist and Bones” would find themselves in the tenuous position of no longer controlling their respectives Houses, and a bare majority for the GOP could suddenly swing away from their demanding control, should their Fearless Chief Administrator starts looking like a political albatross….

  • I’ll ask what feels to me like a viciously cynical question:

    does anyone here really think this Vice President would have qualms about perjuring himself in the interest of the cause?

  • The probability of a pardon is a function of what the White House knows about what Libby knows about that we don’t know.

    Guessing from what we DO know about BushCo, Libby has them over a barrel.

  • “does anyone here really think this Vice President would have qualms about perjuring himself in the interest of the cause?” – jhupp

    Have we determined yet that he sold his soul to Satan?

    But than, Jesus did say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. And God knows, Cheney is disgustingly rich, most of it from stock options on Haliberton stock that has increased in value SINCE HE BECAME VP. Yep, he did not cash in his options before he became vice president, and he decided that only Haliberton could bid on the reconstruction contracts for Iraq because they were the only construction company big enough that had the clearances to know that we were going to war before the invasion.

    Cheney: “Ssssh! The invasion is a secret! No one knows we are going! George doesn’t even have a ‘plan on his desk’. ”

    So as for breaking the ninth (or eighth) commandment “Do not testify as a false witness against your neighbor” I suppose he would be willing to risk it. After all, he can always pay Dobson or Falwell to ‘forgive’ him.

  • “The probability of a pardon is a function of what the White House knows about what Libby knows about that we don’t know.” – kali

    We know that Cheney was freaking out about Wilson’s article. We know Cheney knew that Plame worked at the CIA and recommended Wilson for the Niger mission. We know that Cheney thought that might have been a ‘boondogle’ rather than an honest mission to confirm the information for the VP. We know Cheney asked Libby to suggest the ‘boondogle’ spin to the press.

    We know Rove leaked/admitted Plame’s CIA status TWICE. We know that the CIA thought she was undercover, working on non-proliferation issues including Iran. We know that since the Novak article, she has lost all utility and her contacts are probably now in danger of their lives. And losing those contacts, especially on Iran, harms U.S. security. Yet with all that, we know that Rove STILL HAS HIS SECURITY CLEARANCES.

    We know that Libby leaked Plame’s CIA status. We know he lied to the Grand Jury about who he talked to and who knew about Plame first. We know he was indicted for lying and forced out of the VP’s office. Yet somehow Rove, who did not at first tell the truth to the FBI and thus the Grand Jury, has not been indicted and still has his job.

    And we know that all of this was an attempt to keep the issue out of the public eye until after the 2004 election so the President wouldn’t have to defend attacking Iraq on knowlingly false pretenses.

    And knowing all this now, still 37% of Americans support the President?

    Knowing what we know and knowing how little that seems to matter to the American people, what does Libby imagine he has that would ‘matter’ more than his pardon?

  • kali makes the key point. If the Libby trial would really damage the administration, they’ll pardon him. Otherwise, they’ll let him suffer. Either way, I agree with Ed. The public won’t so much as blink, if they notice at all.

    And in some ways, who cares? This whole thing boiled down to almost nothing. Remember all the excitement, anticipation, wild speculation, jubilation from several months ago? Fitzmas, it was, to all the liberal bloggers. And what happened? Fitzmas turned out to be just another day of going to work.

  • Libby is Cheney’s man. Cheney doesn’t want to see this rock turned over any more than it already has been. If Cheney tells Shruby to pardon Libby, then Libby will be pardoned. What possible advantage could there be to Cheney to see a trial move forward? That’s all she wrote.

    And Cheney would lie like a rug under oath if he felt it accomplished his ends. There are man’s laws and Cheney’s laws. Sometimes a higher power must take precedence when the authority of personal power and partisan control of government is at stake.

  • This is why the Democrats have to stop running from the oversight question. If they don’t take control, we’ll never know what happened in those months/years leading up to the war… among so many other things.

    They need to get on the offensive and ask, loudly and repeatedly, exactly what the Bushistas are so afraid of people finding out.

  • dajafi writes: “This is why the Democrats have to stop running from the oversight question. If they don’t take control, we’ll never know what happened in those months/years leading up to the war… among so many other things.”

    Sadly, the spineless, ineffectual Dems will never demand accountability. Libby willl be pardoned and, as others have said, the public won’t notice. Sigh…There seems to be no hope of getting justice for this criminal administration now that Fitz has passed on Rove.

  • “Knowing what we know and knowing how little that seems to matter to the American people, what does Libby imagine he has that would ‘matter’ more than his pardon?”

    Comment by Lance

    How about the little tidbit that George knew what Dick knew? It’s the old “A=B=C” formula. If Karl was an integral part of this mess, and Karl is Bush’s chief flying monkey, then Bush was likely an integral part of this mess. Libby may have data to that effect. As for Cheney telling the truth, I’d love to see him get his sorry backside caught in an under-oath lie. Perjury is a guaranteed way to get rid of that swarthy buffoon….

  • “Knowing what we know and knowing how little that seems to matter to the American people, what does Libby imagine he has that would ‘matter’ more than his pardon?”- Lance

    “How about the little tidbit that George knew what Dick knew?” – Steve

    Hmmmm!

    Sorry, I’m not buying it. Boy George II probably told Dick that we ‘have to defend our Iraq policy against our critics’, but I believe Wilson acquired Cheney’s particular warth because Wilson said his trip was ‘requested’ by the VP. Cheney doubtlessly thought ‘I did not!’ and started to plan the destruction of this particular enemy. He sucked Rove into it along with his hitman, Libby, but I don’t think Cheney bothered to consult or seek approval from his boss on the particular tactic of outing a CIA covert operative.

    Frankly, I doubt Boy George II even admits to himself that he has done anything wrong either about Plame or the larger issue of Iraq. Libby’s lawyers may want to push him to force a pardon, but I’m still not convinced they are going to get it out of Boy George II. And the more Cheney pushes for it (if he still can) the more he’s going to create a wedge with the President.

    I love all your arguments though ladies and gentlemen 😉

  • “to get rid of that swarthy buffoon.” – Steve

    You think the vice president is ‘darkly complexioned’.

    You might have meant smarmy, ‘gushingly or unctuously flattering’. But I’m not sure that fits either.

  • I think it is definitely possible to get a pardon! Even an ordinary citizen like me has gotten a pardon, but the process that i had to go through is for sure different than what is happening here, but it was too easy for me because a company called Canadian Pardon Services
    took care of all the paperworks and legal things for me. A pardon is easy to get if you know how to approach it.

  • I think it is definitely possible to get a pardon! Even an ordinary citizen like me has gotten a pardon, but the process that i had to go through is for sure different than what is happening here, but it was too easy for me because a company called Canadian Pardon Services
    took care of all the paperworks and legal things for me. A pardon is easy to get if you know how to approach it.

    • Comments are closed.