The Scooter Libby Trial

[LancasterNative]

The whole thing strikes me as a politically-motivated witch hunt.

Clinton aide Sandy Berger (Burglar?) stole documents from the freaking National Archives, and nobody's prosecuting him...what gives?!

[PrettyHateMachine]

Originally Posted by Dd714

If he goes to jail he really needs to change his name - to "Bonecrusher" Libby or "Killer" Libby. He won't last a day with the name of Scooter.

Nah!! He will be living better than most of us in there. They won't touch him.

[Dd714]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Oh, come on. Even the jurors in this trial have said they felt that Libby was the fall guy. He's covering for his boss and Rove.

Libby is guilty and should receive a just punishment. The tragedy is that the real instigators aren't even going to be charged.

Comments on this and I'm trying to hold judgement on politics here - I really had trouble with the one jurers comments after the trial and I think they just set the defense up for a good appeal, possible an outright throwout of the verdict.
This is the reason - On one hand you had the judge giving instructions to the jury to disregard the accusations of disclosing Plame's identity and the political implications, and instead concetrate on the charge of obstructing justice. His instruction were very clear, very complete, and very firm. THEN you have the jurer coming out yesterday and saying "yeah we all hated to convict Libby and thought he was a fall guy and wanted Rove to be charged...". Rove charged with what? It begs the question - what exactly was the jury discussing in the chamber? It doesn't sound like the actual charge, but politics and the Plame event. Should have been irrelevant.

The jurer's comment just may result in this verdict being thrown out. I know Libby's lawyers are setting up an appeal already and I just bet they are jumping all over that.

[mb919]

Originally Posted by LancasterNative

The whole thing strikes me as a politically-motivated witch hunt.

Clinton aide Sandy Berger (Burglar?) stole documents from the freaking National Archives, and nobody's prosecuting him...what gives?!

No, impeaching a popular president over a BJ was a witch hunt. Going after someone who was involved in the outing of a covert CIA agent (which put her life and the lives of other agents at risk, not to mention our national security) was NOT a witch hunt. I wish Fitzgerald could take this further, but alas, it's up to the milquetoast Democratic congress to do anything else about this. Maybe they'll have some time to devote to this after they get done wrangling over their useless non-binding resolutions

Anyway, the difference is clear enough to me...

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by mb919

No, impeaching a popular president over a BJ was a witch hunt.

Clinton wasn't impeached over the BJ; he was impeached for perjury (lying under oath) and obstruction of justice...

Same charges Richard Nixon would've faced, except he at least had the decency to resign before being impeached.

Besides, the person who leaked Ms. Plame's identity wasn't even on Cheney's staff—it was Armitage, who's not being prosecuted.

[mb919]

Originally Posted by LancasterNative

Clinton wasn't impeached over the BJ; he was impeached for perjury (lying under oath) and obstruction of justice...
Same charges Richard Nixon would've faced, except he at least had the decency to resign before being impeached.

Besides, the person who leaked Ms. Plame's identity wasn't even on Cheney's staff—it was Armitage, who's not being prosecuted.

What was Libby indicted and convicted for again?

And I think it's fair to ask why Clinton's sex life was the subject of an investigation in the first place. Talk about a total lack of an underlying crime. The ironies between how Republicans reacted to these two situations is high entertainment...