Bush commutes Scooter's prison termFollow

I wonder, if he hadn't been trounced on the immigration reform bill last week, would he have still pardoned Libby?

par for the coarse.

He was essentially sentenced for a crime he didn't commit (leaking classified information) rather then the one he did. Virtually every legal expert has said exactly that. [...] He should have gotten maybe 6 months, with probation and time off for good behavior. That would have been the typical result given his backround and the charges at hand.

Until recently, federal criminal Sentencing was determined in strict accordance with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that have been established, and periodically revised, by a congressionally-established Sentencing Commission. Although the Supreme Court has now ruled in United States v. Booker that the Guidelines are advisory rather than mandatory, they still remain the principal touchstone for federal sentencing decisions. (I discussed the Booker decision in detail in a prior column.)

At the risk of gross oversimplification, the Guidelines create a sentencing algorithm for each defendant based on two main factors: First, the severity of the offense the defendant was proven to have committed, and, second, the defendant's individual characteristics, especially his criminal history. The combination of these two factors yields a recommended sentencing range, and the government and the defendant then get an opportunity to argue for either an upward or downward departure from this range, based on a variety of factors.

There was no dispute about the second factor here: Libby is a first-time criminal offender and thus in the most favored category in terms of criminal history. But there was heated dispute over how to calculate the other factor, his "offense severity."

In every criminal case, the Probation Office makes a recommendation to the Court as to its view of the appropriate Guidelines range. In Libby's case, the Probation Office calculated his offense severity at the level typically used for perjury and obstruction of justice, the crimes for which Libby was convicted. When combined with Libby's first-offense status, this level of severity yielded a sentencing range of 15-21 months. So, readers may wonder, why was Libby sentenced to 30?

The answer is that while the prosecution often agrees with the Probation Office calculation, it did not do so here, and Judge Walton sided with the prosecution. The government argued that Libby's offense severity should not be calculated based on the level of severity the offenses of which he was convicted, but rather by cross-reference to the level of severity of the underlying crimes that were being investigated by the grand jury to which Libby told his lies. Libby did not commit these crimes, himself but his perjury may have impeded their investigation, and thus left them unpunished.

What were these underlying crimes? That grand jury was investigating whether someone violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) or the Espionage Act by revealing that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent. Such violations carry an higher offense severity rating that generic perjury/obstruction of justice charges. Using this higher offense severity rating, the government recommended a sentencing range of 30-37 months.

Patrick Fitzgerald, the Eliot Ness-like Special Prosecutor, did not invent this cross-referencing for this case. On the contrary, he was following the explicit instructions of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines themselves.

Under the Guidelines, the offense severity for someone convicted of perjury or obstruction is the greater of either the severity rating for generic perjury/obstruction, or the severity rating of the offense being lied about or covered up. In essence, the Guidelines treat someone guilty of perjury or obstruction as an accessory after the fact to the offense underlying the lies and obstruction.

And he'll likely pardon him fully right before he leaves office.

I do think the sentence is a bit harsh based on the above passage, don't see why underlying crimes should relate to punishment of other crimes. But it wasn't outside the bounds enough to warrant a change via Presidential action.

Personally I think the pardon/commuting prerogative for Presidents is unfair, violates separation of powers, and shouldn't exist.

$250,000 is a sh*t load of money for a "fine".

He should have gotten maybe 6 months, with probation and time off for good behavior. That would have been the typical result given his backround and the charges at hand.