Scooter Libby is sentenced....
Today, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice earlier this year. His lawyers have stated they will appeal the conviction.
In the meantime, the judge in the case is considering whether or not to demand that Libby serve his time immediately, or be able to be free while pending appeal. A 3rd option would have him report in 60 days. Comments by the judge in the court regarding sentencing seem to indicate that Libby will either serve immediately or be able to report in 60 days.
Many neoconservative supporters of the President and Vice Presdident have suggested President Bush pardon the former White House aid. President Bush has given no indication of his intent to pardon Libby or not, but insiders say that a pardon, at least before Bush's term is up in January of 2009, is unlikely. So by the time Bush does leave office, it is possible that Libby would be almost thru with his sentence by January of 2009 and the admission of guilt that accompanies a pardon typically would not be in his best interests.
Libby has maintained his innocence throughout. Critics have charged that his conviction reveals only the "tip of the iceberg." Currently, former Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, who was a covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency who was "outed" by Libby and other White House aids in an effort to discredit her husband's charge that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from the country of Niger. Since the controversy, it has become common knowledge and the White House has admitted the uranium charge was erroneous and should have never been announced by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union speech. In the end, the case was based on a bad forgery of documents that were never really taken seriously by most intelligence experts. Wilson and his wife are seeking civil restitution for the damage the incident has caused them.
Unfortunately, the damage that was done by administration to the many agents in the field, their families and the people they associate with both professionally and socially cannot be undone or restituted for.