Thanks to President Bush, a guilty man walks the streets of D.C. a free man. Although Scooter Libby was declared guilty for four of five counts against him, his sentence was commuted by his friend George, but only after he started the appeals process against the verdict. If he was truly innocent, Scooter would have fought the charges regardless of the commutation, yet now he has given up the appeal and come to terms with the jury's decision. Now why would he do that you ask?
From The Huffington Post:
AP reports former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence in July. Had Libby won a new trial, that commutation would be meaningless and Libby would again face potential prison time.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino refused to comment on the trial during today's press conference despite the fact that there is no longer a pending appeal. Talking Points Memo points out that Tony Snow wouldn't discuss the case previously because of Libby's appeal.
Scooter is well aware that if the proceedings had gone ahead, more information about the whole ordeal could have been made public. He would definitely not want the man who let him out of prison to be directly implicated in his crimes. Now that the case is officially over, the White House is supposed to come clean, since their excuse for not talking was that the case was on appeal. If you think these new developments are going to open the White House's mouth, you obviously have not been paying attention to the Bush Administration for the last several years.
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