US News
Cheney's former top aide accepts conviction
Dec 10, 2007, 17:22 GMT
Washington - US Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide will not fight his conviction on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the leak of a CIA officer's identity, his lawyer said Monday.
I Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, had kept his appeal alive in federal court after President George W Bush commuted his prison term in July, sparing him 30 months behind bars.
But he decided that 'the burden on Mr Libby and his young family of continuing to pursue his complete vindication are too great to ask them to bear,' his lawyer, Ted Wells, said in a statement.
'We remain firmly convinced of Mr Libby's innocence,' Wells said.
In his act of clemency, Bush said the judge's sentence for Libby, 57, was 'excessive.' Libby, who has two young children, was left with a 250,000-dollar fine, 400 hours of community service and two years of probation.
He was convicted of lying during a probe into whether the Bush administration intentionally exposed CIA operative Valerie Plame. Her name appeared in a 2003 newspaper column after her husband, former US diplomat Joseph Wilson, criticised the Iraq war.
Wilson claims his wife was unmasked in retaliation for a newspaper article he wrote that refuted one of the administration's arguments for the Iraq war - that Saddam Hussein tried to buy yellowcake uranium from the African country of Niger.
Libby's defenders point out that the case's federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, knew beforehand that the leak came from the US State Department's number-two official, Richard Armitage, not Libby.
Revealing the name of a US secret agent can be a crime. Armitage has not been charged.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
...we call that liberal empathy.
12 more months and bush can suck our nuts
What is this 'we' business? Do you have more than one personality crawling around in your brain pan? Do you hear voices too? Have you talked to any burning bushes lately? Do they talk back? As usual, you neocons jump to conclusions with no fact to back you up. Is one of your 'personalities' Dickhead Cheney? You assume that I am a liberal. I'm not. -Luke
sp4 is bush's right hand ass kisser .thats where the we comes in...
You're a curmudgeon.
Libby was convicted for 'Obstruction' of justice, as if justice was what he got. He walked into a grand jury, without a lawyer (a real lawyer) and simply told them the truth.
The jury, promptly convicted him, citing by word, that they thought he outed Val Plame, when Richard Armitage admitted to it, but his testimony was gagged.
All I can say is wait until it happens to you.
Assumptions again. Wrong again. A curmudgeon is a crusty, ill-tempered old man. I am none of that. As for the rest of your pap, he was charged, and he was convicted by a jury of his peers after a fair trial. The presiding Judge sentenced him. That makes him a criminal. If that isn't american justice, I don't know what is, short of a vigilante lynching party. So, you, being an apologist for all things republican, speak from your prats. By the way, who gave you the word 'curmudgeon?' Like your hero, Bush, you should get somebody to look up the words in a dictionary and then, in very simple language, explain the meanings to you. -Luke
Libby got caught... do you realize how much underhanded b.s. goes on that we don't hear about? Campaign contributions, kick backs, stock options, specially created consultant positions, excessive gifts, free sex... You like to beat up on the President, but you really should be hammering the Congress. They pass all the trash and reward themselves year after year...
SP4 seems to be a complete nut case. Get a life guy and go back to surfing your animal p orn.
...but that still does not change the facts. Libby was not charged with outing Plame, becuase THAT is not against the law!
Richard Armitige ADMITTED to the prosecutor, he did it! End of story. That being the case, Libby was brought in to testify about something that was NOT against the law! Whats next, talk about the weather???
Now, am I the only person who see's a problem with this...you go to the police...they sup
True he was convicted, but for what...making a mistake to a grand jury he could have plead the 5th to?
No, someone above needs to pull the tinfoil cap off and get out of mom's basement more often.
Besides, what, actually, did Lou Libby do wrong EVEN IF HE DID out Plame?
She was NOT a covert agent. She was NOT overseas.
THOUSANDS of people KNEW she worked for the CIA. NONE of this is against the law.
How f--ked up is that?
To quote from your ramblings:'How f--ked up is that?' I ask this question: How f--ked up are you? Beyond redemption, I fear.
f''ked up like a soup sandwhich
...makes me wrong. That being the case, how f--ked up are you?
Pretty f--ked up?
Here everyone goes - picking on SP4 again! You have to admit he keeps things interesting and is good at goading everyone with his rhetoric or rantings -whichever. He doubtless believes everything he writes but does it for effect. At any rate, he has to have his nose in every paper and book constantly to come up with his constant tirade. Republicans are his heroes - bar none, but Libby deserves everything he got. As for a young family - this old guy??
he brings it all on himself..
Again SP4 makes a fool out of himself. He is yet to be right on this board. He lies like his heros. No credibility goes with a fool like him.
page: 1
LukeDec 10th, 2007 - 18:49:03
Oh, these scoundrels. They are guilty as hell but use the family card to avoid taking responsibility. 'too hard on his young family.' Codswallop. What about the fact it is hard on his young family, because he is a criminal. If he was innocent and wanted vindication, he would have pursued the appeal at any cost. Most likely some stooge in a three piece suit said 'Shut up. You are going to upset the apple cart and Mr. Cheney doesn't like that. We'll take care of you. Here's some money.'
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