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The Scooter Libby Pardon - a Serious Constitutional Crisis

S

SLD

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This seems to be a minor news item. Scooter Libby covered up for his boss, VP Dick Cheney, over the Plame Affair. He lied to FBI investigators. He was convicted of obstructing justice. Just before he was to report to prison, W commuted his sentence. Loyalty has its rewards.

The other day, Trump issued him a full pardon. He’s no longer a convicted felon. The timing is not mere coincidence. Trump is signaling his staff and his supporters, I will protect you. Lie for me. Cover up. Nothing bad will happen to you.

It comes at a moment with Trump on the ropes in both the Mueller and Stormy Daniels affair investigations. Both Russian collusion and campaign finance laws were broken, and Trump knew about it. But now they will circle the wagons and lie for their boss, knowing they will be pardoned if ever prosecuted for this.

This is a serious step towards a potential dictatorship. Trump has demonstrated he’s willing to go rogue on our constitutional rights and the rule of law. He could do almost anything and use the power of the pardon to overcome this. Don’t like what Comey says about Trump? Kill him. Trump will pardon you. Want to rid the world of the horror of Hillary Clinton because of pizzagate? Have at it.

He doesn’t need to fire Mueller anymore. He just rendered him powerless.

If this is not one of the most egregious actions by this administration, I don’t know what is. It threatens the very foundations of our democratic republic. He really must be pressured into resigning by principled conservatives.

SLD
 
SLD said:
This is a serious step towards a potential dictatorship.
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Judith Miller: Scooter Libby Pardon Is ‘Long Overdue’

Fitzgerald knew all along that someone else, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, had leaked Plame’s name. Armitage was never charged with anything and an investigation found the leak did no harm to national security. Libby’s conviction hinged largely on Miller’s testimony which should have made her recantation significant. But by the time Miller reconsidered, the media was no longer interested in the case.
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Trausti said:
SLD said:
This is a serious step towards a potential dictatorship.
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Judith Miller: Scooter Libby Pardon Is ‘Long Overdue’

Fitzgerald knew all along that someone else, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, had leaked Plame’s name. Armitage was never charged with anything and an investigation found the leak did no harm to national security. Libby’s conviction hinged largely on Miller’s testimony which should have made her recantation significant. But by the time Miller reconsidered, the media was no longer interested in the case.
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Bullshit. This Pardon has nothing to do with Scooter Libby, deserving or not of a pardon. The DoJ usually recommends and submits pardon applications to the President. This pardon came out of the blue. Bolton probably pushed for it. DoJ did not. The timing is t just suspicious, coming at a moment when the Mueller investigation is gearing up to interview key witnesses and the raid in his lawyer's office revealing potentially damaging information about campaign law violations. This is a signal. Protect me and I will watch your back. This isn’t the time to lighten up. It’s time to wake up to what this cocksucker is doing to our democracy. He is trying slowly to turn us into a dictatorship. He May not be able to do it overnight, but this is a slow ride towards autocracy.

SLD
 
SLD said:
Trausti said:
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Judith Miller: Scooter Libby Pardon Is ‘Long Overdue’
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Bullshit. This Pardon has nothing to do with Scooter Libby, deserving or not of a pardon. The DoJ usually recommends and submits pardon applications to the President. This pardon came out of the blue. Bolton probably pushed for it. DoJ did not. The timing is t just suspicious, coming at a moment when the Mueller investigation is gearing up to interview key witnesses and the raid in his lawyer's office revealing potentially damaging information about campaign law violations. This is a signal. Protect me and I will watch your back. This isn’t the time to lighten up. It’s time to wake up to what this cocksucker is doing to our democracy. He is trying slowly to turn us into a dictatorship. He May not be able to do it overnight, but this is a slow ride towards autocracy.

SLD
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I doubt he'll get much for it tbh. If one is smart or slick enough to obtain a staff position at the WH then they're probably also smart or slick enough to recognize a guarantee from Trump isn't worth spit.
 
LordKiran said:
SLD said:
Trausti said:
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Judith Miller: Scooter Libby Pardon Is ‘Long Overdue’
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Bullshit. This Pardon has nothing to do with Scooter Libby, deserving or not of a pardon. The DoJ usually recommends and submits pardon applications to the President. This pardon came out of the blue. Bolton probably pushed for it. DoJ did not. The timing is t just suspicious, coming at a moment when the Mueller investigation is gearing up to interview key witnesses and the raid in his lawyer's office revealing potentially damaging information about campaign law violations. This is a signal. Protect me and I will watch your back. This isn’t the time to lighten up. It’s time to wake up to what this cocksucker is doing to our democracy. He is trying slowly to turn us into a dictatorship. He May not be able to do it overnight, but this is a slow ride towards autocracy.

SLD
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I doubt he'll get much for it tbh. If one is smart or slick enough to obtain a staff position at the WH then they're probably also smart or slick enough to recognize a guarantee from Trump isn't worth spit.
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No. First you obviously don’t need to be smart to get a position with Trump. You just need to be loyal. Trump will protect those who are loyal to him. Lie for him and he will protect you. He’s sending a clear message to his staff members.

Where he may not get much protection though is if the documentary evidence is clear or those who’ve already given up testimony and have agreed to cooperate have more damaging information. But Trump May have just cut that off. It’s actually still early in the Mueller investigation. The key members of his team really haven’t been interviewed. And if they think there’s an iota of a chance they could also be prosecuted they’ll look to save their skins by relying on Trump.
 
Trausti said:
SLD said:
This is a serious step towards a potential dictatorship.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif


Judith Miller: Scooter Libby Pardon Is ‘Long Overdue’

Fitzgerald knew all along that someone else, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, had leaked Plame’s name. Armitage was never charged with anything and an investigation found the leak did no harm to national security. Libby’s conviction hinged largely on Miller’s testimony which should have made her recantation significant. But by the time Miller reconsidered, the media was no longer interested in the case.
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Judith Miller is a political hack journalist. Scooter Libby was her source in the Valerie Plame affair. Using her to justify Libby's pardon is dumbfuckery at its finest.
 
Derec said:
Meh. Obama freed an actual terrorist who bombed American citizens on US soil.
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This has nothing to do with whether Libby does or does not deserve a pardon. Lots of guilty people who’ve done bad things are deserving of pardons. No big deal. But when the President is under investigation and suddenly pardons someone who was found guilty of obstruction of justice when he covered up for his political boss, the VP, then that's a message. It’s far more than a pardon. It says to those who are being interviewed by Mueller not to dare to implicate Trump. He will reward you. He's got your back. So lie away. Loyalty is more important. We are sinking to autocracy and we don’t care. This pattern has happened in so many other countries. Russia obviously. Now Hungary is sinking towards it too. Poland is under threat. Trump is following a well worn playbook. Venezuela, the Philippines under Marcos. Peru under Fujimoro. Now Trump. If you aren’t frightened by the patterns, you aren’t paying attention.

SLD
 
Sure, but Hillary did something evil in Benghazi.

Besides, everything is just fine, nothing like that could ever happen in the good ol' USA. Amirite? Just keep your heads down and don't worry, it's all going to trickle down.
 
Although this particular instance of pardon is an example of an abuse of the power of pardon, I wouldn't trade away the power of pardon. It is one of the powers of the president that I absolutely believe in and feel it is highly underused.

Were I president, after I pardon every single person in prison on drug offenses, I would put pressure on congress to reform the tax code by pardoning tax cheats.
 
Jason Harvestdancer said:
Although this particular instance of pardon is an example of an abuse of the power of pardon, I wouldn't trade away the power of pardon. It is one of the powers of the president that I absolutely believe in and feel it is highly underused.

Were I president, after I pardon every single person in prison on drug offenses, I would put pressure on congress to reform the tax code by pardoning tax cheats.
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Eh, i'd rather see it stripped from the presidency and given to the senate instead.
 
blastula said:
Trausti said:
Did you miss that Armitage openly admitted he was the leaker?
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Libby wasn't convicted for leaking.
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Riiiiight. His convictions were based on a jury finding he lied about being the source identifying Valerie Plame's covert CIA status. Which the special prosecutor at that time knew to be truthful.

Armitage said that he learned about Plame's employment from a State Department memo that did not mention her covert status, and that he had no knowledge of it at the time. In 40 years of reading classified materials, Armitage said in a telephone interview, "I have never seen in a memo . . . a covert agent's name."

Novak's disclosure of Plame's CIA employment ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the leak. In October of last year, a grand jury indicted vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters about Plame, forcing his resignation and embarrassing the White House.

But Armitage, who said he testified about his actions to a grand jury three times, was not charged for making the disclosure, a circumstance he attributes to his candor in speaking with investigators about his action. He turned over his computers and never even hired an attorney, Armitage said, because "I did not need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth."

The confirmation of Armitage's role has provoked criticism of both him and the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who learned of it shortly after his appointment in 2003. Some have questioned why Armitage waited so long to speak up about it, and why Fitzgerald spent two years appearing to chase a question that had already been answered.

Armitage said yesterday that he did not disclose his role before now because Fitzgerald had asked him not to. But word of his role eventually began to circulate, and on Tuesday, Armitage said, he asked Fitzgerald to be freed of that promise. Fitzgerald agreed.
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Armitage Says He Was Source of CIA Leak

But, hey, special prosecutors would never abuse their role to get results, would they?
 
LordKiran said:
I doubt he'll get much for it tbh. If one is smart or slick enough to obtain a staff position at the WH then they're probably also smart or slick enough to recognize a guarantee from Trump isn't worth spit.
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Oh? It costs Cheato nothing to issue pardons (a normal president would suffer political currency loss.) Sheriff Joe is running free... Scooter is "exonerated" .... everyone he's winking at knows there's a good chance he'll follow through on pardon promises because - why not? If it actually cost him something, the targets might be more skeptical. As it is, what a deal for Cheato, what a deal for his toadies, and what a conundrum for reasonable conservatives.
Unless Republicans revolt en masse or both houses get flipped, we're in real danger from Twitler.
 
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