Libby Asks For Celebrity Treatment; Gillespie Joins Inner Circle
Update: Scooter Libby Loses Bid To Stay Out of Jail
Originally posted at 05.35 Eastern; updated at 13.05 Eastern.
As he opened today's hearing on whether I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should be allowed to remain free while he appeals his conviction in the Valerie Plame investigation, District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he received threatening phone calls and letters after sentencing Libby last week.
Libby -- the former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney -- has been convicted of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of lying to the FBI. He has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine. On Thursday, he'll learn if he gets to stay out of jail while his appeal moves forward, just like a long list of celebrity criminals.
We know this because Libby's lawyers "cite[d] a list of high-profile defendants" that included Martha Stewart when they filed a motion Wednesday asking for bail.
The big question: are there "substantial questions of law or fact" that might led to Libby's conviction being overturned on appeal. Last week, Judge Walton suggested the answer to that question is "no."
Libby defenders continue to insist that he is a victim because (take your pick): there was no "crime" or Valerie Plame was not covert or Clinton lied, too, and he didn't go to jail.
However, we don't know whether or not there was a crime, according to Patrick Fitzgerald, in part because Libby repeatedly lied before and during grand jury fact-finding. And, as Fitzgerald revealed in court filings accompanying the sentencing process, the CIA finally conceded publicly that Plame was a covert agent. (Fitzgerald said this in 2005 when he indicted Libby, as well.)
Finally, Clinton's lie was about an act that may be immoral or repugnant, but the act (oral sex with Monica Lewinsky) was legal, because both individuals were above the age of consent. I find it hard to get as worked up (morally outraged) about marital infidelity as I do breaches of national security.
New White House Counselor
The timing is certainly interesting. Just before Libby's appeal hearing, President Bush announces he's bringing a top GOP gun into his inner circle. Lobbyist and former GOP chief Ed Gillespie replaces Dan Bartlett, the President's longest-serving aide.
Karen Hughes held the position before Bartlett. This trusted role is "that of a close advisor, political expert and, perhaps more than anything else, crafter and conveyor of the presidential message."
Gillespie has held various advisory positions with Bush. But it's his lobbying credentials that reveal an interesting link between the Clinton and Bush White Houses.
Gillespie and Clinton administration counsel Jack Quinn are in business together: Quinn Gillespie & Associates. Their clients include:
Sirius Satellite Radio, which needs antitrust approval to acquire a rival; Qualcomm, which wants Bush to veto a federal agency's ban on imported cell phones made with its chips; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group trying to limit drug industry regulation.
But there's another connection: presidential pardons.
President Clinton issued a controversial pardon in 2000 -- for financier Marc Rich. Rich had tried for years to negotiate with Republicans: Libby was once-upon-a-time his lawyer. But the lawyer who succeeded in putting together the persuasive pardon package was Democrat Quinn.
Bush, through his spokesmen, has declined to speculate on a pardon for Libby, pending an exhaustion of the appeal process. But some pundits believe that Bush might pardon Libby before January 2008, if Libby is forced to await appeal in jail... that day may come sooner, rather than later. We'll know Thursday.
The day before that decision, Bush brings in Quinn's law partner, Gillespie, when one of his own (Libby) is being touted as a candidate for pardon?
My eyebrows are certainly raised. What do you think?
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Comments
Scooter Libby should be shot as a traitor, not jailed as a liar.
His boss, ElDuce should be shot and then hung from a lamp post.
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