Final thoughts of Libby's disbarment.

An old saying: One door closes, another door opens. Team Fitz along with Peter Zeidenberg, Debra Bonamici, and others involved in the Libby trial should be proud that Libby will never uphold a license to practice law.

Here are my final thoughts on the fall of the Little Soldier Irve. Now that Libby has been disbarred by the Bar Association, questions arise again: Is Bush going to pardon Libby? Hmmm.. Let's look at the rules by the American Bar Association on disbarring a lawyer:

Any lawyer who is convicted of a felony is automatically disbarred in most jurisdictions.

In the United States legal system, disbarment is specific to regions; one can be disbarred from some courts, while still being a member of the bar in another jurisdiction. However, under the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which have been adopted in most states, disbarment in one state or court is grounds for disbarment in a jurisdiction which has adopted the Model Rules.

In Libby's case, he can never practice law with a felony on his record. Libby's career as lawyer was screwed when the jurors found him guilty of 4 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice last year. But, it leaves a question again: Can President Bush pardon Scooter Libby? The only way that Bush can get away with pardon Scooter is:

a. Change the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct where it says that a lawyer is disbarred with a felony record.

b. Change of the Justice Dept. rules on Presidential pardon.

Here are the rules for a criminal seeking Presidential pardon:

Five Year Waiting Period

Under the Department's rules governing petitions for executive clemency, there is a minimum waiting period of five years after completion of sentence before anyone convicted of a federal offense becomes eligible to apply for a presidential pardon.

In a nutshell, by the time Scooter finishes his sentence and files for a Presidential pardon, Bush will be out of office.

I suspect that Bush, Cheney, and Fred Fielding will be notifying the DOJ to comb through any legal loopholes to help Scooter, if that is the case. I suspect they may look at the Office of Legal Counsel. Jack Goldsmith, former Asst. Attorney General in the OLC, said something sometime ago about pursue of legal guidance that Bush Administration used for certain cases. He gave the function of the OLC. I posted this piece in September 2007:

The purpose of the OLC's review process is to collect legal guidance about courses of prospective policies an administration might want to pursue. Under the Bush administration, however, OLC review became a waiver of immunity for breaking the law. From Jeff Rosen's profile of Jack Goldsmith:

[T]he office has two important powers: the power to put a brake on aggressive presidential action by saying no and, conversely, the power to dispense what Goldsmith calls “free get-out-of jail cards” by saying yes. Its opinions, he writes in his book, are the equivalent of “an advance pardon” for actions taken at the fuzzy edges of criminal laws.

And of course, Scott Bloch, is the head of the OLC and who is under investigation. But, the real question is what risk will the Bush Administration take to spare Scooter? And there are others who are in prison or who have or haven't been indicted such as Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Alberto Gonzales and other Bush loyalists that maybe looking for Bush to spare them. Are those individuals will be spared by Bush? This pushes Bush in a pickle: He has to choose between loyalty or legacy.