Why Libby Didn't Go To Jail

I am not a conspiracy theorist. If you read my posts at our sister blog, The District Dialogue, you know that I might simultaneously be overly idealistic and morally pliable, but I am no conspiracy theorist. I tend to believe that every decision the White House has made over the past 6.5 years has been done in the pursuit of what they thought was right, or at the very least what was in their self-interest. Now these two decision motivations are often times in conflict and I have two reasons as to why I think Bush commuted Libby’s sentence.

Reason #1
Bush commuted Libby’s sentence to protect the White House. You see, if someone is pardoned they can no longer claim fifth amendment rights regarding the crime either in a courtroom or a Congressional hearing room. Libby was almost certainly involved in nearly every aspect of the War on Terror and the constitutionally questionable procedures cranked out by the administration. As Dick “The Angler” Cheney’s number one guy, there is little doubt that Libby knows a whole lot about the internal deliberations inside the White House.

Libby could have been subpoenaed by Congress and, had he been pardoned, compelled to provide any information he had at the very least regarding the Valerie Plame imbroglio. As it stands right now, with Libby committed to appealing the verdict, he can not be compelled to reveal anything.

This sounds very conspiracy theory-ish, but really it’s just good politics and if there is one thing everyone has to admit, it’s that the Bush administration plays politics like few that have come before. Is it a brand of secret and poisonous politics that has thrust this nation into a period of constitutional decay and governmental crisis, yes, but it has been artful.

Reason #2
The other reason Bush simply commuted the sentence is to ease people into a full pardon. How many times have we seen the administration slowly back track from positions? There was the torture debate, then the NSA wiretapping, and now Scooter Libby. Bush was facing very loud calls from his conservative base to fully pardon Libby. He was also facing the possibility of driving his approval ratings further into the ground with a full pardon. So let the back tracking begin. First anyone involved was going to be fired. Then he wasn’t going to comment. Then he wasn’t going to say what he was thinking regarding a pardon. Finally faced with a judiciary that reasonably and responsibly reviewed the case said that Mr. Libby would not be roaming the streets as the case meandered through our legal system, the president stepped in.

You’ve already heard the talking points. Mr. Libby still has to pay a $250,000 fine. He’s still a convicted felon. Seems tailor-made to blunt the blow back from his commutation. “No, see, Libby is being punished, he’s just not going to jail.” I would not be at all surprised to see Bush fully pardon Libby on the last day of his term. Let the masses roar then, when Bush flies out of Andrews and on to Crawford. It’s really hard to hear the cries of injustice when you’re cutting down brush in your backyard.


I could write a dissertation on why conservative pundits are ludicrous when they attack the legal process, but I won’t. The arguments lack merit in fairly obvious ways. Suffice to say that there shouldn’t be exceptionalism in the American justice system. There will always be cases that deserve a second look, but this was not one of them. I give the president credit for finding the middle path that resulted in irritating everyone without having the full hammer stroke of disapproval come down.

Also, congratulations to Scooter Libby who managed to avoid jail time after lying during the course of a federal investigation in the leaking of the name of a covert CIA operative. We’ll never know the full extent of the damage caused by this leak and the deception that came in its wake because Valerie Plame’s agency assets will never be revealed, I just hope no one died to protect this White House. Wait. Well I hope that no one died in relation to this incident. I feel disgusted a little right now.

[Libby] [Bush] [commuted]