If you were trying to circumnavigate the following legal technicality, do you think you would get away with this? Have a look:
Q So he's issued a new one on July 3rd. Have you read that?Ah, who cares if the statues don't allow for what a president wants. Make is so! Hi, ho...but if this were you or me, would this fly for us? Doubtful.
MR. STANZEL: I have not.
Q Okay, it says: "Strictly construed, the statute authorizing the imposition of supervised release indicates that such release should only occur after the defendant has already served a term of imprisonment."
MR. STANZEL: Well --
Q He didn't serve in any prison time, right?
MR. STANZEL: Correct. But the judge -- it's our view that the judge, the attorneys and the probation office can work out the reporting date, and whether it is technically regarded as probation or supervised release in light of the commutation. So the President has been clear in this. He believes that Mr. Libby should serve two years under probation office supervision, pursuant to the conditions and all other components of the June 22nd order.
Q But you're saying, technically, it could be probation. The President didn't say any technicalities. The President clearly told the American people at Walter Reed --
MR. STANZEL: He did.
Q -- this is going to be probation.
MR. STANZEL: Correct.
Q His judge is saying, hmm, maybe not.
MR. STANZEL: Well, we believe the attorneys and the judge and the probation office can work out those details.
Q But, work out details -- I mean, the President is making the case it's not a slap on the wrist because there's going to be probation.
MR. STANZEL: Right.
Q And the judge is saying, no, if you look at the statute, that's not what's going to happen.
MR. STANZEL: Well, it's our view that in the reading of the law and the order on the 22nd, that that is the way it should be.
Of course, the W, Rove and Co is busy trying to compare themselves to the Clinton administration again. Come to think of it, if you really don't aspire to be like the Clinton's why do they always drag him out of mothballs as a standard by which they should be measured?
Have a look:
"I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.Come on Tony, the "compare us to Clinton" excuse is really getting stale as a means of arguing a point. Statutes are statutes, and laws are laws...for you, me, and the president, and especially his buddies, of whom should be held to a higher ethical standard, no?
In his commutation decision, Bush left a $250,000 fine. Libby paid the fine on Thursday.
Libby's friends and supporters have raised more than $5 million to cover legal fees and were continuing to raise money but Libby paid the fine himself, according to someone close to the fund who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the account are private. The cashiers check filed with the court was issued in Libby's name.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has scheduled hearings Wednesday on Bush's commutation of Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence.
"Well, fine, knock himself out," Snow said of Conyers. "I mean, perfectly happy. And while he's at it, why doesn't he look at January 20th, 2001?"
In the closing hours of his presidency, Clinton pardoned 140 people, including fugitive financier Marc Rich.
Conyers said the hearings would include pardons made by Clinton, former President Bush and possibly other past presidents. "We won't need to review each and every one of them, but the whole idea is to examine to what use this part of our criminal law is being put and whether it's being used adequately or are their other changes necessary," Conyers told Fox News Radio.
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