Scooter Libby Drops His Appeal

By Jeralyn, Section Lewis Libby Trial Coverage
Posted on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 09:39:20 AM EST
Tags: Libby Trial (all tags)

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Scooter Libby's lawyer has announced they will drop the appeal of Libby's felony convictions.

It's too expensive and draining on his "young family."

I suspect this means Scooter has lined up another job and doesn't need his law license back.

Update: Joe Wilson thinks it means Libby's getting a pardon from Bush (received by e-mail, no link yet): [more]

“By dropping his appeal, Mr. Libby has finally abandoned the pretense that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice. Mr. Libby’s decision suggests, however, that he may have received word that President Bush plans to pardon him shortly. Of course, a pardon is completely at odds with the president’s earlier claim that he would not tolerate anyone on his team leaking a covert CIA officer’s identity, but this is the kind of inconsistency representative of this administration. Given the White House’s extensive and continuing efforts to cover up how and why Valerie Wilson’s identity was leaked to the press, the only way that remains to get at the truth in this sordid matter is through our civil suit against Libby, Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and Richard Armitage.”

Update: Jane at Firedoglake thinks he's sending a message to Bush that "a Christmas pardon would be a lovely idea. "

< Huckabee's Other Pardons | Supreme Court Okays Departures in Drug Cases >

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Scooter Libby Drops His Appeal | 8 comments (8 topical)

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So, I suppose that means we can (none / 0) (#1)
by scribe on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 09:56:02 AM EST

call him "Convicted Felon 'Scooter' Libby" or "Perjurer 'Scooter' Libby" or "Convicted Liar 'Scooter' Libby" or just plain "Liar" without any worries about his coming back with a defamation suit.

For the rest of his miserable life.

The cheap way out (none / 0) (#2)
by caramel on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 10:59:48 AM EST

It's cheaper for him to wait for Bush's pardon than to pay attorneys fees...

It's a practical decision (none / 0) (#3)
by cboldt on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 12:00:18 PM EST

"If" he were to prevail on appeal, says his counsel, "he's back into a trial."

That has to presume then that the "Fitzgerald's appointment was constitutionally infirm" argument doesn't reach all the way back to the investigatory stage of events.

And so, the stronger grounds for appeal were prejudice to the jury based on trial conduct. And those grounds were mighty weak, as well.

I was looking forward to reading the appellate brief.

Defense Fund (none / 0) (#4)
by squeaky on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 12:13:49 PM EST

I suppose that he gets to keep the money.

: He'll find a way, and then (none / 0) (#5)
by scribe on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 01:23:27 PM EST

use it to invest in Kurdish Oil deals, with his buddy Perle.

: It pays to be a movement conservative (none / 0) (#6)
by Molly Bloom on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 01:36:19 PM EST

An interesting angle (none / 0) (#7)
by scribe on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 04:16:48 PM EST

posited by Bashman over at How Appealing:

for Scooter, a win on appeal (at least on the evidentiary issues, not the Fitz appointment issues) would have resulted in "reverse and remand for retrial" - the result of that being that the judgment of conviction would have been vacated. A commutation applies to a particular judgment. Since a vacated order or judgment is treated like it never existed, vacating it through a successful appeal would have resulted in a commutation which related/applied to nothing. Thus, Scooter would have been exposed to incarceration on the new trial.

Since any retrial would almost surely take place after a change in administrations and the new president would likely not have any interest in protecting the former, there is likely no way Scooter could have gotten a second commutation.

So, Scooter quit while he was ahead.

wasting the court's time (none / 0) (#8)
by diogenes on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 10:14:00 PM EST

Maybe Libby just didn't want to waste Fitz's time since presumably Fitz continues to do the all-important work of finding and indicting the actual person who "leaked" Plame's secret agent status rather than forcing Fitz to pursue the distraction of perjury indictments.