Libby; Prison

Barring presidential intervention, Scooter Libby is going to prison.

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby cannot delay his 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case, a federal appeals court unanimously ruled Monday.

The decision is a dramatic setback for Libby, who likely will have to surrender to prison in weeks. The ruling puts pressure on President Bush, who has been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

In anticipation of the conservative group apoplexy over justice being meted out to this convicted felon, Anonymous Liberal reviews the events which led Libby to a prison cell.

This began with a criminal referral from the CIA (that hotbed of liberalism) to John Ashcroft's Justice Department. When Ashcroft (a Republican) recused himself from the case, his deputy James Comey (another Republican) appointed Patrick Fitzgerald (yet another Republican) to oversee the case. Though he likely could have secured indictments against a number of administration officials (including Karl Rove), Fitzgerald chose the conservative route and only indicted the person who had most obviously lied and obstructed the investigation, Scooter Libby. Refusing to plea, Libby hired all the best lawyers in Washington and took the case to trial, where a sympathetic jury nevertheless convicted him of four felony counts. He expressed no contrition following his conviction and was therefore sentenced by a Republican-appointed judge to a prison term well within existing sentencing guidelines (which are steep because Republicans want them that way). His request to remain free pending appeal was denied and that denial was confirmed unanimously by a three-judge panel consisting of two Republican-appointed judges.

Clearly this a partisan witch hunt.

Indeed.