The Washington Independent » scooter libby

Is Dick Cheney Promising to Obstruct Justice?

Spencer Ackerman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:50:17 +0000

One more thing from the former vice president’s Fox interview yesterday. Discussing John Durham’s torture probe:

WALLACE: If the prosecutor asks to speak to you, will you speak to him?

CHENEY: It will depend on the circumstances and what I think their activities are really involved in. I’ve been very outspoken in my views on this matter. I’ve been very forthright publicly in talking about my involvement in these policies.

I’m very proud of what we did in terms of defending the nation for the last eight years successfully. And, you know, it won’t take a prosecutor to find out what I think. I’ve already expressed those views rather forthrightly.

Well, now it’s clearer why Cheney wanted President George W. Bush to pardon Scooter Libby about that obstruction-of-justice thing.

Seriously — and Daphne, help me out here — isn’t this Cheney serving notice of his intent not to comply with the investigation? I know, this is all hypothetical so far: Durham only got this job last week; hasn’t had remotely enough time to look at Cheney; and hasn’t subpoenaed his testimony in any case. But since when do citizens get to set the terms for their appearances before prosecutors?

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At the Foreign Policy Initiative

David Weigel — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:50:05 +0000

I’m at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington for “Afghanistan: Planning for Success,” the first conference put on by the Foreign Policy Initiative, the new neoconservative think tank/messaging operation. Before the first panel kicked off, FPI directors Bill Kristol, Dan Senor and Robert Kagan milled around in the hall, near the breakfast table, along with Cliff May, Randy Scheunemann, James Kirchick, and David Asdenik.

Two West Wing stars, Martin Sheen and Brad Whitford, happened to be walking through the hotel as attendees rolled in. That got a few people at the registration table whispering, but not quite as much as the arrival, right before the panel, of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. He slowly made his way into the room, talking with well-wishers, getting updates on how their families were doing.

No Last-Minute Pardons For Torture

Daphne Eviatar — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:33:18 +0000

Contrary to the expectations of many of us who’ve been speculating about this for months, it’s looking like President George W. Bush may well leave office without issuing pardons to any of the myriad high officials in his administration — or the low-level operatives who took their orders — for the torture, humiliation and other extreme abuse of detainees in U.S. custody since September 11, 2001.

As I noted yesterday, some sort of investigation or prosecution by the Obama administration is looking more and more likely, given that Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder testified that waterboarding is torture, Dick Cheney unapologetically admitted he authorized it, and even Bush Pentagon official Susan Crawford, who oversees military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, acknowledged that the so-called “20th hijacker” was tortured and therefore can’t be prosecuted. Those are some pretty serious admissions of war crimes — ratcheting up the pressure on the next administration to prosecute them.

Still, there was President Bush today, getting ready to skip town without even pardoning Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted in 2007 of obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame/CIA leak investigation.

The only people Bush did decide to pardon today, according to Politico, were two former Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were serving lengthy prison terms for shooting a fleeing Mexican drug suspect in 2005. Bush commuted their sentences.

White House officials are saying they don’t expect any pardons or other acts of clemency by the president before he checks out of office Tuesday at noon.