Category Archives: Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals

Gonzales Knew About Violations, Officials Say

Two senior Justice Department officials said yesterday that they kept Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales apprised of FBI violations of civil liberties and privacy safeguards in recent years.

The two officials spoke in a telephone call arranged by press officials at the Justice Department after The Washington Post disclosed yesterday that the FBI sent reports to Gonzales of legal and procedural violations shortly before he told senators in April 2005: “There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse” after 2001.

It is a sign of how dysfunctional our government is that this man is still in office. ( Not to mention that the same questions must be asked about Gonzales's boss.) The question presented is whether these are truly exceptional times, or whether the current crisis — the public's complete loss of trust in the government, the government's complete lack of interest in whether the public trusts it — is a sign of some deeper structural failing in our form of government.

Meanwhile, Judge Walton asks if Libby is even eligible for probation when his sentence was commuted before he served it (the statute assumes that supervised release follows incarceration). He's asked for briefs by Monday (Judge Walton's order and further discussion at Scotus Blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, Big Tent Democrat and Firedoglake).

The good folks at Talkleft, however, think they have two plausible answers to this: (1) the day Scooter got booked counts as one day of incarceration for time-served credit, so that satisfies the statutory pre-requisite; (2) the statute doesn't matter, because the commutation power is plenary, and the president can transmutate prison time into something less harsh (people can refuse pardons, so there is no risk that something harsher would be substituted). As a result, the statute prerequisite isn't relevant here. Details at Suggestions for Judge Walton on Libby's Supervised Release.

Daily Kos: A Pardon on the Installment Plan

It should be noted, for future record, that the President of the United States has just used his power of clemency to sabotage an active criminal investigation into the office of his own Vice President. In some parallel universes, I have heard tell that such a thing was once itself considered corruption, or obstruction. It seems at minimum useful to put a footnote in the history books, somewhere, that such a remarkable thing could happen and still receive not merely praise, but unsheepish celebration among people who pretend nightly to be serious about such things.

I think almost everyone involved sees this as what it almost certainly is: Scooter Libby, loyal to the last, is getting his pardon on the installment plan. There is little advantage — and distinct disadvantage — for Bush to pardon the charges entirely, at the moment, but Bush indeed came through with an impeccably timed effort to ensure Libby faced no actual material consequences from his actions. Facing immediate jail time? Then kill the jail time. All of it, from day one onward. If Libby was in any actual danger of having to pay his $250,000 fine, there seems little doubt he would have seen that part of his sentence commuted as well.

But now Libby is in no imminent danger: problem solved. Bush has neatly and in one action removed any impetus for Libby — or anyone else — to cooperate with government investigators. There is no leverage a prosecutor can use against Libby, in order to gain a plea deal in exchange for information that he has so far refused to provide. Conservative backers have contributed more than five million dollars in a slush fund for Libby's defense, and are eager to help him in his hour of need.

Paris Hilton went to jail; Scooter walks (scoots?). He can thank the 'Scooter commuter'. Or perhaps the mysterious inhabitant of the fourth branch.

Readings looking for irony may find it chez Atrios (“Inevitably, the subject of Marc Rich comes up every time presidential pardons come up. Without going into all of the issues, can we just remind the world that… Marc Rich's lawyer was Scooter Libby.”) and also at Is That Legal?, which tells the instructive tale of Wilbert Lawrence.

Myself, I'm not looking for irony. Democratic spines would be nice.

Via a report written and released by the Judiciary Committee in 1974 in the aftermath of the Watergate crisis:

Comments in the state ratifying conventions also suggest that those who adopted the Constitution viewed impeachment as a remedy for usurpation or abuse of power or serious breach of trust. Thus, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina stated that the impeachment power of the House reaches “those who behave amiss, or betray their public trust.”⁶⁰ … In the same convention George Mason argued that the President might use his pardoning power to “pardon crimes which were advised by himself” or, before indictment or conviction, “to stop inquiry and prevent detection.” James Madison responded:

[I]f the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty…⁶³

But will they?

The administration still hasn't lost its capacity to amaze or to communicate in Newspeak.

It seems that the GW Bush “respects the jury's decision” in the Libby case, but has decided to overturn it — by commuting Libby's jail sentence.

So the good soldier, who took one for team by lying to the Justice Department, walks. His $250,000 fine will undoubtedly be paid by well-wishers or through speaker fees, so the net effect of the sentence is two years of probation and transfer to the talk show circuit.

I admit that when I first saw the headline, I thought it was a joke. But it's real. Statement by the President On Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby (full text after the jump). No matter how low they go, they show they can go lower.

I agree with John Edwards:

“Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today. President Bush has just sent exactly the wrong signal to the country and the world. In George Bush's America, it is apparently okay to misuse intelligence for political gain, mislead prosecutors and lie to the FBI. George Bush and his cronies think they are above the law and the rest of us live with the consequences. The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today.”

And with Nancy Pelosi:

“The President's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people.

“The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable.”

Harry Reid:

“The President's decision to commute Mr. Libby's sentence is disgraceful. Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq War. Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone. Judge Walton correctly determined that Libby deserved to be imprisoned for lying about a matter of national security. The Constitution gives President Bush the power to commute sentences, but history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own Vice President's Chief of Staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law.”

Note that Libby's sentence was not excessive. It was within the (now non-binding) sentencing guidelines — and that Libby didn't take responsibility for his crime. Which gives him a great deal in common with his bosses.

Note also that by commuting but not pardoning Bush (1) ensures that Libby won't talk to prosecutors in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence; and (2) ensures that Libby retains the right to take the 5th is questioned by prosecutors or by Congress (modulo immunity…)

And finally, please note that, as the Poor Man reminds us, Gov. GW Bush presided over 152 executions in Texas and never commuted a single one. At the time he said,

I don't believe my role [as governor] is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own, unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair.

[UPDATE: an astute commentator ('The Editors') corrects me regarding Bush's Texas record: then-Gov. Bush did commute one death sentence but for which the execution total would have been 153. I didn't know that and I am grateful for the correction.]

As Howard Dean said,

“Once again President Bush and the GOP have undermined a core American value: equal justice under the law for every American. By commuting this sentence, President Bush is sending a clear message that the rules don't apply to the Bush White House or loyal Republican cronies. After promising that anyone who violated the law would be 'taken care of,' President Bush instead handed Scooter Libby a get out of jail free card. Though Libby was convicted by a jury of lying about a matter of national security, President Bush is sparing him the consequences ordinary Americans would face. This conviction was the first moment of justice in a Bush Administration void of accountability. It's a sad day for America when the President once again puts protecting his friends ahead of equal justice under the law.”

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