Fred Thompson Gets It Right (Again)

Fred Thompson has some wonderful comments on the Scooter Libby case (and the Plame joke trial) at his ABC Radio site, a transcript of his Fred Thompson Report radio commentary:

The sentencing of Scooter Libby was the last in a series of acts that has resulted in a shocking injustice – one created by and enabled by federal officials. As I’ve been saying for many months, this is a “he said-she said” case about political infighting that would have never been brought in any other prosecutor’s office in America.

The CIA started the ball rolling by sending the Democratic partisan husband of one of its employees to Niger on a sensitive mission. Knowing an opportunity when he saw one, he returned and blasted the Bush Administration (the fact that he blatantly falsified a few important things along the way is another story). It should not have been a shock to CIA officials when people then asked, “Who is this guy and why was he sent to Niger?” The only mystery in Washington is why the CIA employee-wife’s name, Valerie Plame, took as long as it did to leak.

Nevertheless, the CIA demanded that the Department of Justice investigate the leak of her name (not surprisingly, the fact that the CIA was making such a request was leaked). This put pressure on the DOJ. The DOJ, in turn, promptly caved to the media and Congressional pressure to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the Plame leak. However, there were two glaring problems for anyone with a sense of justice, or who may have gone to law school for one semester.

The Justice Department and the new Special Counsel knew that:

1.) The leaking of Valerie Plame’s name did not constitute a crime because she was not a “covered person” under the relative criminal statue and,

2.) They already knew the name of the leaker: State Department official Richard Armitage.

Yet small matters such as these do not matter much to Justice Department officials trying to cover their own fanny, or to a newly minted Special Prosecutor with a reputation to make and members of the media to satisfy.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald proceeded to make public statements and employ tactics that would have brought condemnation in any other setting. He moved heaven and earth for a year and a half in order to come up with some sort of “process” crime against a high-level Administration official -- so that he could try them in one of the most anti-Bush Administration places in America, Washington DC.

Knocking it out of the park, he closes with:

Unfortunately, this is an example of what Washington is all about these days. All too often the intersection of politics, law and the media results in a lack of responsibility by practitioners in all three areas. Having all this crashing down on the head of one man and his family, in a time when national security leaks are published regularly on the front pages of the newspapers without consequence, will justifiably add to the cynicism and outrage on the part of all observers.

For the preamble to our Constitution, our founders stated explicitly the purposes for our Constitution. Listed even before providing for domestic tranquility or for the common defense was the establishment of justice. Official behavior, with regard to matters like the Scooter Libby case, are not what our framers had in mind. Now this excessive sentence, given by the Federal District Judge is just another in a long line of reasons why Mr. Libby should be pardoned.

Yet another reason I believe Mr. Thompson should be our next President.

Scooter Libby MUST be pardoned NOW.

The Scooter Libby situation has gotten completely out of hand.

The trial, the very definition of a political witch hunt, has resulted in the complete distruction of the career and life of a man who's done nothing but serve his country as an ordinary civil servant.

Yes, he was guilty, if you agree that a co-worker disagreeing with you about what you said to them a few years ago is indeed perjury and obstruction of justice.

However, the behavior of Patrick Fitzgerald in this case is completely out of hand. His note is the equivalent of saying "yes, we found him guilty of running a red light, but I know he murdered a person, so let's sentence him as if we had found him guilty of that" - and the judge agreed.

I can't rehash the details as well as National Review Online has, so I'll leave the heavy lifting to them. But 30 months and a $250K fine for Libby while Sandy Berger destroys documents from the National Archives and gets a $50K fine, loses his security clearance for three years and is disbarred.

Disparity? Political pandering? Fitzgerald trying to redeem himself because he could never prove any crime actually occurred? Payback for not being able to "stick it to Cheney and Rove?" Naaah.

Fred Thompson has said he would have already pardoned Mr. Libby by now were he President; let's hope that for once President Bush has the intestinal fortitude to do the same.

I'm not counting on it.

Finally, we can show our support financially.

With the formation of Fred Thompson's exploratory committee, those of us who have been urging Fred to run for months now can finally put our money where our mouths are and support the man we firmly believe will be the next President of the United States.

If you feel the same, won't you donate to the cause via the provided link?