As a follow-up to Big Tent Democrat's earlier post on Cheney and Libby, this statement now appears on the White House website:

Scooter has dedicated much of his life to public service at the State Department, the Department of Defense and the White House. In each of these assignments he has served the nation tirelessly and with great distinction. I relied on him heavily in my capacity as Secretary of Defense and as Vice President. I have always considered him to be a man of the highest intellect, judgment and personal integrity-a man fully committed to protecting the vital security interests of the United States and its citizens.

Scooter is also a friend, and on a personal level Lynne and I remain deeply saddened by this tragedy and its effect on his wife, Harriet, and their young children. The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man.

A tragedy? I like the way he says "our system" rather than "the judicial system" or the "appellate courts." Can you spell p-a-r-d-o-n?

Cheney, the ultimate supporter of the unitary executive system.

Ok, we've linked to Firedoglake over and over today as they have the most thorough coverage of the Scooter Libby Sentencing (great job, Marcy, Jane and Christy.)

What are the law bloggers and commentators saying?

• Sentencing Law and Policy
• White Collar Crime Blog
• How Appealing (news coverage summary, not commentary)
• Andrew Cohen at WaPo's Bench Conference.
• Andrew Cohen again at CBS's Court Watch. Quotable:

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I don't think Bush will make any decision on a pardon for Scooter Libby before Judge Walton rules on the Appeal bond, and if denied, before the D.C. Court of Appeals reviews the bond decision. The White House said as much today.

The White House indicated today Bush will not act before Libby's appeal of his conviction is decided. I think that will take about a year.

Bush always says he doesn't want to interfere with the legal process. So that puts us at about June, 2008. Bush has until his last day in office in January, 2009 to issue the pardon.

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I've received this by e-mail from Joe and Valerie Wilson's representative and thought I'd share:

As Americans, both Valerie and I are grateful that justice has been served, reconfirming that our country remains a nation of laws.

We are also saddened for the pain that Mr. Libby has inflicted on his family, friends, and the nation. Mr. Libby benefited from the best this country had to offer: the finest schools, a lucrative career as a lawyer and many years of service in Republican administrations. That he would knowingly lie, perjure himself and obstruct a legitimate criminal investigation is incomprehensible.

It is our hope that he will now cooperate with Special Counsel Fitzgerald in his efforts to get to the truth. As Mr. Fitzgerald has said, a cloud remains over the Vice President.

Every official in this administration must be held accountable for their actions.

Update: Jason Leopold has this new on camera interview (pre-sentencing) with Joe Wilson.

In light of the sentence imposed by Judge Reggie Walton today on the former Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, what I wonder about is what is Vice President Cheney thinking today. Despite what some of us say, clearly Scooter Libby has done some good things in his life. He was not a person naturally inclined to perjury and obstruction of justice. But, to protect Dick Cheney, that is precisely what he did.

To me at least, the genesis of the outing of Valerie Plame was Cheney's reaction to the May 6, 2003 Nicholas Kristof column, where Joe Wilson was Kristof's principal source. For reasons still not clear, Cheney went ballistic about it and ordered a full court press to discredit the report. This included finding out "who sent Wilson" and then, trying to spread the word that Wilson was not credible (the logic is not clear why this would be discrediting) because "his wife sent him." Of course, to forward the charges of nepotism and boondoggles, it was necessary to reveal that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA.

Cheney was not deterred. Libby was ordered to do what he had to do.

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Update: They are now arguing the issue of bond pending appeal. I didn't think they would do that before the Notice of Appeal and a formal motion for bond pending appeal was filed. Marcy is covering the arguments. I still think Libby will get a voluntary surrender, meaning he doesn't go in today, regardless of whether an appeal bond is granted.

Update: Libby stays out of jail for now. The Probation Department has to recalculate the guidelines grouping the obstruction, perjury and false statement charge. The judge has stayed imposition of the sentence. No decision on bond pending appeal today or voluntary surrender today, but Libby goes home. Briefs will be filed on the appeal bond issue, it will be heard a week from Thursday at 1:30.

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Update: 30 months for Scooter Libby. $250,000. in fines.(CNN) Questions: Where did he ask to do his time? What's the voluntary surrender date?

Note: CNN is erroneously reporting Libby also got 2 years probation. It's supervised release, not probation. Supervised release replaced parole in the federal system in 1987. Probation and supervised release may be similar, but they are not the same.

Via Marcy at Firedoglake, Ted Wells has finished his argument for departures and a non-guideline sentence. Libby just spoke to the court:

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Here Here are the 373 pages of the sentencing letters submitted on behalf of Scooter Libby. I've broken them down into four parts.

• Letters, Part 1
• Letters, Part 2
• Letters, Part 3
• Letters, Part 4

Update: CNN: 30 months for Scooter Libby. Libby goes home. No ruling on appeal bond.

10:00 ET: The Judge is hearing legal arguments over the application of the federal sentencing guidelines to I. "Lewis" Scooter Libby.

Marcy is live-blogging at Firedoglake (Part 1 here, Part II here.) Judge Walton seems to agree with the Government that the cross-referencing guidelines are appropriate for at least the obstruction of justice count. All agree they don't apply to the false statement charge.

That's bad for Libby. His lawyer, Bill Jeffress, is now arguing that Valerie Plame was not covert, which is just wrong. She was covert.

10:11 am ET

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I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby gets sentenced today. While the Government is asking for 30 to 37 months, the U.S. Probation Department calculated his sentencing guidelines at 15 to 21 months, and advised the Judge that departures from the Guidelines, which would result in a lower sentence, should be considered.

Among the reasons Libby is arguing for a lesser sentence:

• His record of public service
• His loss of his law license
• His financial loss due to legal expenses. It appears he is also asking the court to consider the legal fees to be incurred with civil suits filed against him.
• Non-likelihood of recidivism.
• Aberrant Behavior (a single act or course of action in an otherwise unblemished life)

The 160 letters written by friends of Scooter will be released to the media after the sentencing.

Jane and Marcy will be on scene and live-blogging from the courthouse for Firedoglake. I recommend getting live coverage and updates from them, as I will be here in Denver and reacting to news as it's available, rather than reporting it firsthand.

My last prediction, which I have no reason to change, is here.

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John Dean writes about Bush's dilemma in granting Scooter Libby a pardon and Fred Thompson's role in Libby's pardon-seeking process.

I have to take issue with one sentence. Dean writes,

Criminal defense attorneys with whom I have spoken expect that Judge Walton will choose a sentence of roughly 30 months (two-and-a-half years), and to give Libby at most a couple of days to get his affairs in order before surrendering to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Self-surrender doesn't work that way. There's no question the Judge will grant Libby a voluntary surrender to the designated institution. But, it's a matter of weeks, not days. Libby has to first be designated to a particular institution and that will be done by the Bureau of Prisons. They will consider any recommendation the Judge makes (which, if he makes one, will be based on wherever Libby asks to go) and then make a final decision.

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Forget the sentencing letter issue. There's a bigger one.

Team Libby filed its two sentencing memoranda today (here and here.)

Turns out, the Probation Department calculated Libby's guidelines at 15 to 21 months, before applying any departures. And, it found at least three grounds for departure from the guidelines:

In this case, the PSR identifies at least three mitigating factors that are present to such a significant degree to warrant downward departure: (1) Mr. Libby’s outstanding record of public service and prior good works; (2) collateral employment consequences for Mr. Libby, including the expected loss of his license to practice law; and (3) the improbability of any future criminal conduct by Mr. Libby.

The Probation Department also found that the aberrant behavior departure warrants consideration:

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Judge Reggie Walton ruled today that following Scooter "I. Lewis" Libby's sentencing, he will release the more than 150 sentencing letters received in the case, both those asking for leniency and those asking for a harsh sentence.

The order is here (pdf).

Personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers will be redacted from the letters.

The Judge gave Libby's lawyers a little wiggle room. If they think additional personal information should be redacted from specific letters, they have until June 4 to identify that information in an ex parte submission to the court. The Judge says that he will only consider those further redactions that contain "plainly sensitive or confidential" information.

There's a sentence in the Order that indicates to me the Judge thinks the charges Libby was convicted of are quite serious. He writes that the number of letters received are indicative not only of the high public interest in the case but "of the weightiness of the underlying charges."

Team Libby can't be happy with that sentence.

Update: Marcy weighs in.