Federal Sentencing Guidelines Do Not Apply to the (Vice) President's Men

WaPo:

President Bush today commuted the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, sparing him the 30-month term to which he was sentenced last month for lying to federal investigators about his role in the White House leak of a CIA officer's identity.

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Bush said he was letting stand a $250,000 fine that also was part of the sentence handed down last month by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who presided over the month-long trial last winter.

Gee, that $250,000 fine is really going to hurt. It's not like Scooter has a lot of wealthy friends to help him out or anything.

And in commuting Libby's sentence rather than pardoning Libby outright, Libby still retains his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. This way, Libby can keep quiet if any investigation of the Plame affair, etc. starts focusing on Libby's boss Dick Cheney.

Josh Marshall:

There is a conceivable argument --- a very poor one but a conceivable one --- for pardoning Scooter Libby, presumably on the argument that the entire prosecution was political and thus illegitimate. But what conceivable argument does the president have for micromanaging the sentence? To decide that the conviction is appropriate, that probation is appropriate, that a substantial fine is appropriate --- just no prison sentence.

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The only basis for this decision is that Libby is the vice president's friend, the vice president rules the president and this was the minimum necessary to keep the man silent.

Finally, courtesy of The Next Hurrah comes this story from two weeks ago. The headline: Administration pushes for mandatory sentences

Cross-posted at Mizzou ACS.