Judge says letters about convicted ex-Cheney aide will be released in CIA leak case

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge said Thursday he will release more than 150 letters he received regarding next week's sentencing of I. Lewis Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted in the CIA leak case.

Libby, convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice, had asked that
the letters not be released. Attorneys for several news organizations argued that the law required that the letters be made public.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton agreed, citing a need for transparency.

«The court has received more than 150 sentencing letters in this case, some urging leniency for the defendant and some expressing opprobrium at the defendant's actions and calling for the imposition of a substantial prison sentence,» Walton wrote.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/judge-says-letters-about-convicted-ex-cheney-r140161.htm

[cspanlovr]

1. YES!

[maddezmom]

2. I'm sure it'll make for some fun reading

K&R

[Cirque du So-What]

3. This will identify closeted neocon apologists

along with those who value national security over partisanship. Release away, Judge Walton!

[Rydz777]

4. "convicted ex-Cheney aide." Why, that must be none other than

old Scooter Libby! How quickly our names disappear from the headlines and sink into the anonymity of a description. Maybe his name will resurface in its full infantile form when he goes to the slammer.

[Kagemusha]

7. Better than "alleged perjurer"

Which I hear some news organization actually used recently. Though that may be just your normal sloppiness. It's hard to tell sometimes.

[Robbien]

8. They hide the seriousness of the matter by purposely using the term aide

How many times do you think Libby referred to himself as just a lowly aide when he was lording it over the west wing staff.

Cheney's Chief of Staff an aide? Yeah, right.

[Chemical Bill]

11. I like the sound if it.

I like "Cheney" and "convicted" in the same sentence. Let's have more if it.

Bill

[Spazito]

5. That is very good news, another very wise decision by Judge

Walton! Transparency is, indeed, needed.

Recommended.

[displacedtexan]

6. How many letters look like this...?

Dear Judge,

Scooter will do better next time. Please don't let a grown man
named "Scooter" be harassed daily by actual criminals.

XXOO,
Lynn

Edited to add: I'll bet Fred Thompson wrote one!

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[progressoid]

10. Mmm...delicious.

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[BadAssTeddyBear]

12. You mean we could have written letters asking for harsher punishment????

Why didn't we know about this? Now I'm pissed......

[JoePhilly]

13. Dear Judge Walton,

We are a nation of laws.

No Amnesty for Scooter.

[whistle]

14. NSA needs to check on oneway airline reservations to Paraguay this weekend

[peacetalksforall]

15. I look foreward to reading the letters from Victoria Toensing,

Mary Matalin (and/or James Carville), plus Judy Miller, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Rev. Dobson, Rev. Moon.

[Bitwit1234]

16. If I felt so strongly that a person should be given a light sentence

I would have no qualms that my letter requesting that, be made public information.

If they want Libby given such a reduced sentence why do they want to keep it secret.

[cascadiance]

17. Is this a political stunt to show Walton is "transparent" enough for FISA court?

Note: Looks like an earlier post I made to this thread got deleted because of a reference to a "nameless" site. I hope this post is OK with this site link removed from it. It certainly wasn't the main thrust of the post I made.

People should be aware of other things about Mr. Walton.

Reggie Walton's own complete financial history has been redacted from the official records.

He's also the same judge that mysteriously continues to be "randomly" selected to hear Sibel Edmonds' court cases, and continually is dismissing them sometimes without even talking to defense lawyers at all for "State Secrets Privilege" issues.

Now he's also being nominated to go on the FISA court.

This all smells like a stunt to make him appear to be an advocate of "transparency". He was entertaining earlier thoughts of dismissing Libby's case for "graymail" purposes (Libby's lawyers were trying to campaign on pertinent evidence also fitting the same "state secrets" privilege protections that would allow him to dismiss the case similarly to Sibel's civil cases). Unfortunately for Libby, this was a criminal case and therefore State Secrets privilege usage in criminal cases still isn't "tested waters" yet, and I'm guessing that it was hard for him to justify the scrutiny that would be applied if he did allow it to be dismissed for these reasons, especially with his past history of dimissing Sibel's cases.

Somehow I think this is a cheap stunt to try and campaign that he's for "transparency" to justify him getting approved for the FISA Court.

I don't trust him and neither should you. I want to first seem him "unredact" his personal financial history before he should even be considered to be approved by the Senate for the FISA court!

Some interesting links on this. Make sure your senators know of this before giving him any approvals!

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread192941/pg1

The so-called "Random" selections of Judge Walton as analyzed by Chris Deliso...

http://www.balkanalysis.com/?p=624

[roguevalley]

18. only 150 letters and maybe half from enemies. so few friends. I

wonder how many would have written for him with the idea someone would read them besides the judge.

[L. Coyote]

19. What is the mailing address?