Decius wrote:

The Scooter Libby case has triggered some very weird commentary around the blogosphere; perhaps the weirdest claim is that the case against Libby was "purely political."

I find this argument seriously bizarre. As I understand it, Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Fitzgerald filed an indictment and went to trial before Bush political appointee Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Libby, and Bush political appointee Walton sentenced him. At sentencing, Bush political appointee Judge Walton described the evidence against Libby as "overwhelming" and concluded that a 30-month sentence was appropriate. And yet the claim, as I understand it, is that the Libby prosecution was the work of political enemies who were just trying to hurt the Bush Administration.

In the end, frankly, I have no idea what happened, and I have nearly everyone screaming partisan talking points at me and absolutely none of it is credible. There is no simple summary of facts and I do not know who to beleive. Everyone is equally insistent that they understand the truth and their version of events must be believed and they are the ones who should be trusted and its the other guys who are the crooks. Perhaps if I devoted months to reading all of the court filings and press reports I could come to an understanding that I was comfortable with, but I don't have time for it. Basically, as far as issues upon which to form political views, I'll stick to things that are a lot more clear than this.

Well, since my opinion is already well known, the facts/time line go like this. Richard Armitige, then Deputy Secratary of State told Bob Novak Joe Wilson's wife worked at CIA. What is not clear is whether or not Armitage connected that to the reason Wilson was sent or not, but someone did (Rove? Libby? Cheney? Addington? that part has never been real clear). At that point an inquiry into who leaked a CIA agent was started.

Ashcroft recused himself as too close to the subjects of the investigation and it was handed over to Patrick Fitzgerald, who was made a US Attorney by W. Fitzgerald worked the grand jury for months and finally came back with perjury and obstruction charges against Libby for lying repeatedly to the grand jury. Fitzgerald never charged anyone directly with the leak for two reasons, one the charge is very difficult to bring, and second, Libby's lies to the jury obfuscated what happened. In the meantime, the "partisan witch hunt" cries start, even though Fitzgerald was appointed by Bush, and the judge in the case was also appointed by Bush.

Libby gets convicted and told he's going to do 30 months, have a $250,000 fine, and some other minor things. He files for appeal, and suspension or jail time until the appeals process is complete. The judge accepts the motion to appeal but declines the suspension as that would preclude that there is some issue where there is reason to believe the appeal would be successful. Libby appeals that ruling. Yesterday morning, the appeals court also rejects the motion for suspension, with Bush issuing the commutation late yesterday afternoon.

The following facts are not disputed. Libby did lie to the grand jury. His claims that he misremembered things are one thing, but among his statements which he was convicted of were that he told the grand jury that he told reporters about some things and they then brought those back to administration members when the reality was, Libby had told the staff members, not the reporters, but denied telling the staff members to the grand jury. That sort of "huh?" response you would get reading that is exactly what Fitzgerald was talking about in regards to figuring out what the crime was.

With the commutation, Libby probably still loses his law license, but the fine can be expected to be picked up out of his legal fund, so any real impact on Libby is now limited to being able to practice law.

That's the scenario basically spin free.

RE: The Volokh Conspiracy - Was the Libby case political?