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WASHINGTON - Former White House and State Department officials and military commanders are supporting former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as he asks a federal judge to spare him prison time in the CIA leak case.
Libby's lawyers said Thursday would be unfair. Citing numerous letters from former colleagues and friends, they said Libby deserved only probation.
"His dedication to promoting freedom abroad and keeping American citizens safe at home is beyond question," the attorneys wrote.
One letter quoted by Libby's attorneys, from a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "I always came away from our encounters thinking how lucky the country was to have someone of his caliber helping think through the great security challenges we all faced."
Probation officers recommend a sentencing range of 15-21 months, but left open the possibility that defense attorneys could argue for less. Libby's attorneys say his distinguished career should persuade Walton to spare him prison.
Libby's lawyers said Thursday would be unfair. Citing numerous letters from former colleagues and friends, they said Libby deserved only probation.
"His dedication to promoting freedom abroad and keeping American citizens safe at home is beyond question," the attorneys wrote.
One letter quoted by Libby's attorneys, from a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "I always came away from our encounters thinking how lucky the country was to have someone of his caliber helping think through the great security challenges we all faced."
Probation officers recommend a sentencing range of 15-21 months, but left open the possibility that defense attorneys could argue for less. Libby's attorneys say his distinguished career should persuade Walton to spare him prison.
Update:
Here is one of sentencing memo by Team Libby.
Here is the other sentencing memo by Team Libby.
2 comments:
Great post;)
I see some the preen team is still trying the case they lost. LOL
Thanks!
This was very predictable by Libby defense tean to request probation for Libby and spare him prison. This is going to be a very hard for the defense team to get that wish. Ted Wells tends to forget that he hoodwinked Walton, the court, and the prosecution team into assuming Libby was going to take the stand. And Wells took them all through the ringer to get classified info for Libby's defense when that was a waste of time for the court (2 1/2 months wasted).
We can look at past cases of individuals that committed perjury. As John Dean pointed out:
Presidential Appointment Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President Dwight Chapin was convicted for lying about his involvement in the 1972 Nixon campaign "dirty tricks" operation. Chapin was not convicted for involvement in the dirty tricks per se, but rather for making false statements to the grand jury about his activities. Chapin was sentenced to 10-to-30 months in prison, with the judge required that he serve not less than 10.
And Martha Stewart who was charged and convicted of 4 counts of obstruction of justice, lying to the investigators, and inside trading. She got 5 months in prison, 5 months of home confinement, fined, stripped as CEO for MSO, and so on.
It will be very differcult for Libby to simply get probation when he was found guilty of lying about his leaking classified information of a covert operative to reporters and obstructed the case. Will shall see what Walton's decision will be on June 5th. But, I am glad that Walton is allow some of the letters of Libby's support to be disclosed.
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