Trump pardons Scooter Libby
I bet Trump has gained increased sympathy in recent months for those caught up in a politically vindictive net and charged with “process” crimes. Libby was certainly one of them.
Libby’s sentence had already been commuted by President Bush, so this is just an extension of what had already taken place:
…Cheney pleaded with Bush to pardon Libby, but the president would not go that far. He did, however, grant Libby a commutation that allowed him to avoid prison.
Near the end of Bush’s presidency, Cheney made another bid to clear Libby’s record with a full pardon, but Bush again declined.
It was never clearly established whether Libby discussed or confirmed Plame’s CIA affiliation to journalists. However, during the investigation, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage acknowledged he confirmed Plame’s CIA connection to The Washington Post before any of Libby’s reported interactions with reporters on the subject. Armitage, who said he was unaware of Plame’s covert work with the CIA, cooperated with the investigation and was never charged.
The investigation was conducted by a special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, who also served as the U.S. Attorney in Chicago. After Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself because of the probe’s connections to the White House, Deputy Attorney General James Comey appointed Fitzgerald.
During and after the investigation, Libby’s allies complained that Fitzgerald charged Libby in order to justify the extensive probe into the leak. They also argued that it was unjust for Libby to have faced charges when the primary source of the leak, Armitage, never did.
Those arguments make sense to me, and I’m glad Libby was pardoned.
I also think this “get someone on a minor process crime if you can’t find anything else” business is easy (and tempting) to misuse, and that’s done quite regularly.
Here are two interesting (and timely) statements on the subject, although they come from about 30 and 80 years ago, respectively [hat tip: J.J. Sefton at Ace’s]:
Rich [Lowry] writing in the NY Post had this to say about Mueller and special prosecutors:
“…In his famous dissent in the Supreme Court case of Morrison v. Olson upholding the independent-counsel law in 1988, Antonin Scalia wrote, “Nothing is so politically effective as the ability to charge that one’s opponent and his associates are not merely wrongheaded, naive, ineffective, but, in all probability, ‘crooks.’ And nothing so effectively gives an appearance of validity to such charges as a Justice Department investigation and, even better, prosecution.”
Scalia relied heavily on a speech from FDR’s attorney general, Robert Jackson. The future Supreme Court justice warned against prosecutors picking a person, not a crime, to investigate.
It’s still worth quoting Jackson at length: “In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm” – the ability to pick and choose targets – “that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies…”
Yes, indeed. You can find the larger speech from which the Jackson quote was taken here; I haven’t had time yet to read it myself. Jackson, who became a SCOTUS justice from 1941 to 1954, gave the speech in 1940. His name also rang a bell for me from the Nuremberg trials, and when I looked it up I saw that he was the chief US prosecutor there.
Still very timely, both quotes.
Reminds me of Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s “pit bull.” “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
This is Banana Republic stuff. Given the nature of humans maintaining a justice system that provides equal justice is incredibly difficult. Now there seems little attempt to give an appearance of equality and objectivity.
I’d say of all the political events of the past few decades, the evident devolution of the Justice Department is the most dispiriting for me, only exceeding the decline in public school education as number two.
The USA is so exceptional that we need special prosecutors to come up with fake crimes that never existed.
Susanamantha Says:
April 13th, 2018 at 3:16 pm
I’d say of all the political events of the past few decades, the evident devolution of the Justice Department is the most dispiriting for me, only exceeding the decline in public school education as number two.
Is it really a surprise that the Ministry of Love wasn’t about Love…
Now we are all federal criminals.
http://volokh.com/2009/07/27/if-youre-reading-this-youre-probably-a-federal-criminal/
I am glad. It took way too long, but better than never. I guess Bush was too high-minded to confront the dirty side of the justice system head on. Too bad.
The Special Prosecutor/Independent Counsel is one of the more corrupt inventions foisted on a free society. It starts with a conflict because of the strong impetus to produce results in the form of convictions–for anything and everything. It should be abolished
I feel a measure of guilt that I once rooted for Ken Starr, and I almost feel sympathy for the Clintons.
Don’t make Flynn wait that long.
I never understood why GWB didn’t pardon Libby.
huxley Says:
April 13th, 2018 at 7:45 pm
I never understood why GWB didn’t pardon Libby.
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Ditto – I suspect we will never know.
This was long, long, long overdue.
The persecution of Libby, on counts that may have been “legal” but were never convincing to the public (at least on the Right; the Left, as we know, accepts anything that fits their narrative as convincing) seemed to me to be the most Kafka-esque of the many episodes of Deranged Government Syndrome since Watergate.
Now, we are out-Kafka-ing even Kafka.
Pardons Scooter and sends Assad some ordnance. Lots of messages sent today. Not the guy who talks a good red line, but does nothing to back up the talk. A welcome change.
Rush Limbaugh suggests Trump should pardon people caught in tthe Mueller fishing expedition.
So if the conduct has occurred, even though there hasn’t been a charge or indictment, the president can pardon. And, yes, a president may pardon himself. So if Trump’s serious about stopping this, that’s what he should do
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/04/11/want-end-mr-president-start-pardoning/
Powerline says the Libby pardon is a signal this may be Trump’s strategy.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/04/by-pardoning-libby-trump-sends-a-message.php
Interesting. Great out-of-the-box thinking if that’s what’s happening.
To Aesop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvR8h65T2M4
All those conspiracies that apparently we shouldn’t believe in right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTv6XuAKls
Some additional research on how FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened and how Admiral Kimmel was not given certain intel.
Don’t make Flynn wait that long.
No, a pardon suggests guilt. I think Flynn’s plea and prosecution will be vacated after the OIG report is out. Obama appointed judge Gloria Navarro dismissed all charges against the Bundy family “with prejudice” for prosecutorial misbehavior. She is my hero this week. Judge Emmett Sullivan showed the way in the corrupt Stevens case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/us/politics/08stevens.html
Mike K Says:
April 14th, 2018 at 9:18 am
Don’t make Flynn wait that long.
No, a pardon suggests guilt. I think Flynn’s plea and prosecution will be vacated after the OIG report is out.
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This.
And prosecutors should be punished for egregious misconduct (which they call just being zealous for justice), just like Nifong was (which people keep forgetting).
It’s not just the top echelon of law enforcement that is corrupt.
Mike K:
Good point.
And prosecutors should be punished for egregious misconduct (which they call just being zealous for justice)
The word the king james bible translators used to describe Yehovah as a ‘jealous’ god, I looked up the original etymology of the term they translated.
It read ZEALOUS. Humans messing up stuff once again, I see.
It’s not just the top echelon of law enforcement that is corrupt.
The world rests under the church of Lucifer.
As for lawyers, these trial guys and gals would be better described as “jealous for justice”.
A) Trump should push to get an indictment of HR Clinton on the illegal emails she had, as well as on deliberately avoiding Freedom of Information Act requests. I’m surprised he can’t find a prosecutor willing to prosecute, based on the evidence already known.
B) All FBI / DOJ agents who destroyed evidence should be disciplined, possibly prosecuted, probably at least dismissed / no pension.
C) Trump should publicly declare that any crimes other than collusion with Russia, which are tried because of the Mueller fishing expedition, including Flynn, will be pardoned by him if the tried party is found guilty. Trump will not support any fishing expedition, and every Dem who supports such expeditions should be ashamed of themselves. Police states have gov’t goons invading. (Good point that there should be no pardon until after guilt — but knowing they’ll be pardoned allows “not guilty” to be the plea, rather than plea-bargain “guilty”… maybe including Flynn.) Trump should also mention Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich. Probably should order the FBI to release all the documents, UN-redacted. Note the hypocritical double standards of the Dems.
D) The OIG report should be acted upon as the highest priority to get indictments against those who look guilty — and get trials started against them.
Putting Dems on trial is an important step Trump needs to take to save his presidency — always on defense means you’ll eventually lose.
Glad Trump’s honoring Obama’s Red Line … far more than Obama ever did.
Hussein setup the ISIL Syria trap and Trum fell for it.
Glad Trump’s honoring Obama’s Red Line … far more than Obama ever did.
Everything Hussein did was for the transformation and betrayal of the USA.
Even Nixon had to attempt to keep up the Vietnam pretense due to LBJ’s war problems.