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The further redacted affidavits filed in the Miller case are now available online. Two interesting facts have struck Just One Minute commenters as we skim through this newly available material. First, Fitzgerald granted Ari Fleischer immunity without requiring him to provide waivers, so that Fitzgerald could not confirm Ari's story with reporters. This seems remarkable, and when you add to it that Fitzgerald claimed in court that he granted immunity to Fleischer without having any idea what he'd testify to, it is astonishing. It may explain why he believed for so long that Libby had been the source to Walter...

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson signed on with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign yesterday, saying "it's entirely possible" his ex-spy wife will hit the trail with her, too. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a covert CIA operations officer by President Bush's advisers in 2003 as they sought to discredit her Iraq war critic husband. She's writing a memoir due in the fall. "I would expect her to be engaged [politically] probably after the book tour," Wilson told the Daily News after Clinton announced his endorsement. Wilson said his wife shunned politics during her two decades as a covert spy. But...

Ten days after the President commuted the prison term of I. Lewis Libby, Judge Walton upheld the amended sentence in a new memorandum opinion, and displayed his pique at the executive interference and disputed the criticism of his sentencing process. But a review of the relevant facts suggests the President has the better argument.

Conrad Black found guilty on 3 charges CBC News Last Updated: Friday, July 13, 2007 | 11:35 AM ET Businessman Conrad Black has been found guilty on two mail fraud charges and one obstruction of justice charge, a Chicago courtroom was told Friday morning. On the other changes, Black was found not guilty. The jury's verdict came after 12 days of deliberation. There is no word of verdicts in the cases of three Hollinger executives who were being tried alongside the Canadian media baron. More to come.

Do you believe Democrats will be swept into control of the White House, the House, and the Senate next year on a wave of public outrage over the CIA leak affair? Neither do I. Democrats might indeed win it all in 2008, but Plamegate won’t be the reason. Nevertheless, some are still trying to wring the last drops of political benefit from the CIA leak saga, still acting as if the public is hungry for one more retelling of the story. The latest retelling came Wednesday, when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) held a hearing entitled “The...

In commuting the defendant's thirty-month term of incarceration, the President stated that the sentence imposed by this Court was "excessive" and that two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine alone are "harsh punishment" for an individual convicted on multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators. July 2, 2006 Statement by the President on Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby at 1. Although it certainly is the Presidents prerogative to justify the exercise of his constitutional commutation power in the manner he chooses (or even to decline to provide a reason for his...

President George W. Bush has publicly acknowledged for the first time that someone in his administration likely leaked the identity of a CIA operative, but he said it's time to "move on." ...Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was the highest White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/politics/13670689/detail.html ******** For some reason the name William Jefferson Clinton rings a bell as another "white house offical" who was impeached for obstruction of justice? ...seems the MSM has blurred my memory.

Did President Bush pull a classic Machiavellian move to outmaneuver Team Clinton over last week's Fourth of July holiday? In my opinion, the timing of President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison term was no accident. The President was well aware that former President Clinton would be joining his wife on the fourth for her visit to Iowa in an attempt to raise her sagging poll numbers there. The President is also very aware of the former President’s own record on pardons. President Bush also correctly judged that Team Clinton would resort to defending their own pardon record as soon...

When he used his clemency power to keep I. Lewis Libby out of prison, President Bush said a sentence of two and a half years was excessive punishment for lying to federal investigators about conversations with reporters. I agree. But the president's sudden desire to correct unjust sentences is hard to credit, given how little interest he has shown in this area until now. In six and a half years, Bush has granted 113 pardons, typically used to clear the records of reformed criminals after they've completed their sentences. Counting Libby's, he has issued only four commutations, which allow people...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A state lawmaker said Saturday he was being facetious when he called on President Bush to commute the prison sentence of a former Ohio congressman convicted of bribery and racketeering. State Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngstown said he was attempting to vent outrage over Bush's decision to spare former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison sentence by writing the president Friday and asking him to show mercy on James Traficant. --- Hagan said his letter was misinterpreted by some hardcore Traficant supporters, including local politicians who think Traficant has paid his...

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions," the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a scholarly New York Democrat, used to say, "but not their own facts." Sorry, "Pat." But, my e-mail box runneth over with misconceptions from readers who feel entitled to their own facts about President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's jail sentence. The former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney had been sentenced to 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine before President Bush commuted the prison term, calling it "excessive." However, Bush let the fine stand, along with probation.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's commutation of a prison term for a former aide to Vice President Cheney did not play well with the public or even Republicans, a survey found. In a USA Today-Gallup poll released on Tuesday, 66 percent said Bush should not have intervened in the case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whose sentence for obstructing justice in the CIA leak case included a 2 1/2-year prison term. Thirteen percent said the president's move was correct, and 6 percent said Bush should have given Libby a full pardon. Bush didn't even receive much of a boost in support...

The New York Times waited just hours after President Bush commuted the sentence of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., before issuing an editorial condemning the president's decision. -SNIP-The Times editorial made much of the supposed hypocrisy of the tough-on-crime right in supporting the decision to commute the sentence. It ran out its editorial under the headline "soft on crime," though it has been soft on crime for years, save for when Republicans are in the dock. Its support for throwing a public official in jail for 30 months for the crime of trying to...

Let me now -- and not for the first time -- rush in where angels fear to tread. I support President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence. I have never met Mr. Libby. I have not been asked by any of his friends or family to assist him. So why am I taking this step, which is sure to be criticized by many of my friends and supporters? It is because I believe in fairness. To remain silent because speaking out would not be popular is to invite punishment in the world to come. What are the facts in...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Monday urged President Bush to waive executive privilege and allow White House aides to discuss the decision behind Scooter Libby’s commutation. In light of Libby’s prison sentence being commuted, Conyers is holding a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the use of presidential clemency power. Calling the decision “highly controversial” in a letter to Bush, the Michigan Democrat references “commentators” who are suggesting that Libby’s commutation removes any incentive for him to provide more information on the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to the press. Conyers cites past examples of...

One of the weaknesses of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign is that imagining her in the Oval Office brings to mind the scandals that marked her husband's time as president. Especially now, when she is trotting old Bubba out to rev up the faithful, the sordid past undermines her and boosts Barack Obama's promise for a different kind of politics. The list of investigations, allegations and a few convictions during the Clinton administration was so long and tangled that the cases now morph into a fog. Distinctions among Travelgate and Whitewater and FileGate and GiftGate and the $100,000 commodities windfall get...

With supporters running away from him -- on his immigration policy, on Iraq -- with his popularity plummeting, as Republican politicians seek safe harbor, with critics sniping, there are qualities to admire about President Bush. Almost alone, stubbornly, he stands with our allies, including Israel, refusing to back down from Islamic terrorists working American public opinion in Iraq. He continues to pressure Iran on its pursuit of an Islamic theocratic nuclear nightmare in the Middle East. He stands for life, opposed to the popular drumbeat from those who would use some human lives to benefit other, more powerful lives through...

Senators want Libby prosecutor to testify 14 minutes ago The Senate Judiciary Committee may seek testimony from controversial prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the obstruction of justice case against vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, two senators said on Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from Fitzgerald because, "I still haven't figured out what that case is all about." Libby, the one-time top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty in March of obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA analyst whose husband...

<p>I have been a lurker here for quite sometime. I am also a (struggling) cartoonist and thought I would share my latest offering with you.</p>

Scooter Libby Roundup FACE THE FACTS: The reason Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence was SO LIBBY WOULDN'T TALK. Bush “guaranteed not only that Libby wouldn’t talk, but retaining Libby’s right to invoke the Fifth. This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.” Now, the Bush administration is legally protected from having to answer questions. If Libby had been in prison, anyone could have gotten to him. Now, no one can get Libby to say a word about the real culprits, which are obviously Rove and Cheney/Bush. **First of all, it's vitally important to understand what Valerie Plame was actually...