The President of the United States has the unrestrained power of granting pardons for treason, which may be sometimes exercised to screen from punishment those whom he had secretly instigated to commit the crime, and thereby prevent a discovery of his own guilt ~ George Mason, 1787 (12/11/1725 to 10/7/1792) was a United States patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights". For all of these reasons he is considered to be one of the "Founding Fathers" of the United States.
An Excerpt from the Thom Hartmann Radio Program, 7/5/2007 (edited for brevity and clarity).
Thom Hartmann: In my opinion this is the real issue behind the Scooter Libby case - the real issue is not being discussed in the mainstream media, and frankly is not even being much discussed in the blogosphere. This is the real issue. ... I find it very very curious that in the first week of February of this year Dick Cheney went on Wolf Blitzer's show and said, "I can't talk about the Scooter Libby Trial because I'm going to be subpoenaed to testify". Scooter Libby's lawyers had subpoenaed Karl Rove. ... They brought into evidence a memo in which Dick Cheney said, "The president has asked this guy to do this".
In other words pointing out that basically the defense was that Scooter was a small cog in a large machine that was being run by George bush and Dick Cheney to out a CIA agent for revenge. And then all of a sudden on February 14th Scooter Libby decided to roll over. He is not going to present a defense, he's not going to call any witnesses, he's not going to subpoena Dick Cheney, he's not going to subpoena Karl Rove, he's smiling a lot... and he knows he's going to be convicted now. Why?
I'm suggesting that another crime was committed. The first crime was bush's lie in the State of the Union address - knowingly lying to us to get us into a war. There was the second crime of them trying to destroy Joe Wilson's Wife, and also put the fear of God into anyone at the CIA who might try to tell the truth about the lies that bush was telling.
That crime, which was a cover-up of the first crime was also treasonous. And now here, I am submitting to you, is the third crime, and that is that someone from the office of the president, or the vice president, or both, went to Scooter Libby - probably in the first or second week of February of this year - and said, "Stop your defense. Stop defending yourself in court. Don't worry. Stop your defense, you will be convicted. We will set aside any jail time, and when bush leaves office in January of 2009 he will pardon you on the way out - the conviction will be removed from your record".
This, in my opinion, is the third impeachable offense. The third felony committed by bush and Cheney. When you look back at the Watergate proceedings, Richard Nixon tried to stop judicial inquiries into his own crimes. Congress investigated - and the press investigated as well - and discovered that Nixon was part of a criminal conspiracy based in the White House.
This from the articles of impeachment, "Richard Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation. He made false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States.
Withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States; approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings; interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations; and making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States".
And finally, and this is the kicker - this is from the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon, "endeavouring to cause prospective defendants, and individuals duly tried and convicted, to expect favoured treatment and consideration in return for their silence or false testimony, or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony". That's what Richard Nixon was impeached for. I believe, this week, that's what we saw George W. bush do.
My Commentary: Well said Mr. Hartmann. I am in 100 percent agreement with your analysis.
Further Reading
[1] The Libby Commutation: Coincidence, or Conspiracy? by Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams. 7/5/2007.
[2] Gore: Libby Had 'Knowledge That Could Incriminate His Bosses In The White House'. Posted by Nico, Think Progress. 7/5/2007.
Author and former White House counsel to Richard Nixon, John W. Dean, on the I. "Scooter" Lewis Libby indictment...
ReplyDelete"Cheney's standing has suffered mainly because Libby emerges as such a liability. Fitzgerald threw the book at him not for anything he said to reporters but for what he said to the FBI and the grand jury. The indictments suggest that the aide whose aim was to spin the war might have tried to spin the prosecutor. Lying was a remarkable act of stupidity on Libby's part, ...He's old enough to know better. He watched Watergate and Iran-contra. To try to pull the leg of the grand jury was really quite remarkable".
Remarkable, perhaps, but not unwise. No jail time and, I'm certain, he'll be pardoned shortly before bush leaves office. Telling the truth was absolutely out of the question. Why? Because then Congress would have no choice but to impeach BOTH bush and Cheney.
I agree with Al Gore who believes that "Libby [has] knowledge that could incriminate his bosses in the White House". Now that his sentence has been commuted there is ZERO incentive for him to tell the truth.
Cover-up accomplished.
BTW: the reason bush commuted Libby's sentence instead of issuing a pardon? Now, if called before Congress to testify he can take the fifth -- because he's appealing the convictions. A pardon would wipe out those convictions, and he would be unable to invoke the 5th amendment.