No Pardon Anytime Soon By Dan Froomkin / WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/06/15/BL2007061501193.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

No Pardon Anytime Soon

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 15, 2007; 1:34 PM



The White House has officially ruled out the possibility of a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby until he exhausts the appeals process -- a timetable that is all but certain to lead to significant prison time for the former top aide to Vice President Cheney.

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton yesterday ordered Libby to start serving his 30-month sentence in a matter of weeks. Libby's appeal will presumably take months if not years.

Libby can avoid prison time only if one of two things happens soon: A special panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overrules Walton and allows Libby to remain free pending appeal; or Bush goes back on his word and grants a pardon while the appeal is still pending. Both are highly unlikely.

White House officials yesterday amplified earlier assertions that Bush is holding off on any action for the foreseeable future.

"Scooter Libby still has the right to appeal, and therefore the president will continue not to intervene in the judicial process," said White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino. "The president feels terribly for Scooter, his wife and their young children, and all that they're going through."

Here's Tony Snow, asked about a pardon at his press briefing yesterday: "What the President has said is 'Let the legal process work itself out.' We're just not engaging in that right now."

Here's White House counselor Dan Bartlett, asked about a pardon on CNN yesterday: "It is important that the appeals process be able to be exhausted. Scooter and his team going through that right now. And we'll reserve judgment until those appeals are exhausted."

The White House position must be a bit sobering for Libby's ardent defenders -- including those in the vice president's office . Their belief that Libby was railroaded is evidently not shared by at least some people at the highest levels of the White House.

I THINK BUSH IS PUNISHING CHENEY AND 0VP FOR THE PLAME DISASTER WHICH HAS DESTROYED KARL'S DELICATE POLITICAL OPERATIONS TO SNEAK ETERNAL FASCISM ON THE US. OTHERWISE, THERE'S NO LAW BUSH WOULDN'T AND HASN'T BROKEN. THIS LAW AND PROTOCOL AND PRECEDENT IS ONE HE'LL FOLLOW BECAUSE IT'S CONVENIENT AND PASSIVE AGRESSIVE AND GIVES HIM COVER TO SCREW OVER ERSTWHILE ALLIES, WHOM HE THINKS SCREWED HIM. (AND THEY DID, ALTHOUGH IT WASN'T INTENTIONAL!)

because they do not subscribe to the idea that the law applies to all. They want an IranContra type of resolution--just a "policy difference."

:P j/k

Once he has been pardoned, he can no longer claim the Fifth Amendment and Congress can call him to testify. If he does not tell them the truth he faces more perjury charges. Of course, he will not be pardoned at this time. Poor Scooter.