Scooter Libby's Sentence Commuted by President Bush

From the White House:

Statement by the President On Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby

...This case has generated significant commentary and debate. Critics of the investigation have argued that a special counsel should not have been appointed, nor should the investigation have been pursued after the Justice Department learned who leaked Ms. Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak. Furthermore, the critics point out that neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation. Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.
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Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.

I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.
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Many of us would have preferred the President pardon Libby outright. The President recognized that Libby's "professional work in the legal community is forever damaged" based on a conviction for basically forgetting what he had for breakfast.

Meanwhile Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame have never faced any accountability for perpetrating the massive fraud which started the ball rolling in the first place. Not only that, but they have gone on to enrich themselves and become minor celebrities for their role in that fraud.

And Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Advisor, got what amounts to a slap on the wrist after admitting he stole and destroyed the most highly secret documents relating to terrorism. A crime that deprives us all of the true facts of how the problem of terrorism was treated in the Clinton Administration.

Needless to say, Democrats have gone more berserk than usual with this clemency for Libby (again, might as well pardon Libby outright). But I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds the words of Senator Hillary Clinton especially interesting:

"This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice." - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

One would think that Mrs. Clinton would want to be the last person to remind us that her husband's Administration pardoned a string of criminals of every sort including car thieves, drug dealers and even terrorists.

There is nothing to stop the President from issuing a full pardon later. Unfortunately, he's shown a tendency to be harder on his friends than on the misconduct of his foes. But he did the right thing in seeing that Libby is spared jail time for the crime of supporting the Administration.