Libby Alert!

Here is an update of Libby's sentencing from Firedoglake:

Libby's lawyers and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will get their hands on the report May 15, but the document will not be publicly released–not before Libby's June 5 sentencing nor after. The report will include a probation officer's calculation of what sentence Libby should receive under federal guidelines and a judgment on whether the case merits a different sentence. Lawyers on both sides can contest parts of the report, and the judge ultimately can depart from its findings, but it will serve as a kind of first draft of the eventual sentence.

The presentence investigation is done by a federal probation officer, and is put together via a review of documents, testimony, evidence in the case, and other materials that the jury may have reviewed in coming to a verdict; several interviews and discussions with the defendant and persons identified by the defense team as being able to vouch for the defendant's character; FBI agents and other investigators who may have either interviewed the defendant or investigated this matter; and a whole host of other information. Judges take these reports very seriously, and they often form a very solid foundation for how the judge views sentencing considerations in terms of the federal guidelines applications. All of this is designed to give the probation officer writing the report a well-rounded picture of who exactly the defendant is, and whether or not said defendant has accepted responsibility for the crimes for which he has been found guilty.

And thus the dilemma for Scooter Libby.

Libby is at a disadvantage for the presentencing report, however, because he was convicted rather than pleading guilty. The sentencing guidelines provide leniency for those who accept responsibility for their crimes and cooperate, but since Libby continues to contest his conviction, he will very likely struggle to show remorse about crimes he still contends he didn't commit.

"His lawyers necessarily are hamstrung in their ability to contextualize the offense, given that they have asserted innocence from the get-go," says Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University law professor.

Libby's eventual sentence may depend on the probation officer and the judge's degree of sympathy for him. If he comes off as an unlucky fall guy for higher White House officials, as he apparently did for several jurors who convicted him in March, Libby could be free earlier than the guidelines suggest. But that same refusal to shift blame to his bosses could be read as obstinacy, an impression that might not bode well for Libby's future.

This all depends on Judge Walton. But things may not go well in Libby's favor:

1.Defense lawyer Ted Wells wasted the time of Walton, the prosecution team, and the court by hoodwinking them to assume Libby was to take the stand and had put the court through pain stake to have classified documents for Libby's defense.

2. Libby never personally accepted responsibility.