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Bush's Clemency

Submitted by Fred Willis, Jul 3, 2007 20:30

For years the FBI and cops in Chicago tried to get something on Al Capone and failed. They could not link him to the elicit sources of his great income. However, since Capone could not prudently declare the sources of his money, he could not thereby pay taxes on same. Ergo, he got jailed on a Catch-22. That is failure to pay taxes on income the sources of which he could not in his right mind declare.

Such is also the case of Scooter Libby. A prosecutor is absolutely doing his job if he uncovers in the course of investigating a possible crime incidental illegal activity. Just because Armitage was supposed to be the guy who blew Valery Plame's cover, it is still a crime if Libby lied about what he knew and when he knew it during the course of the investigation of l'Affaire Plame.

For Scalia or anyone else to state that a Prosecutor is merely an ad hoc investigator and must ignore evidence of crime not completely germaine to the original prosecutorial charge is a position that every criminal in the United States would love every court in the US to take. They could file petitions for suppression of evidence ad infinitum.

When a Conservative bull is being gored, Conservatives turn into radical left-wing Liberals. It is quite amazing to see.


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Other reader comments on this article

Comment By Date

Amazing that the editors a nationally-read newspaper would display such profound ignorance of the law they purport to describe. In order... [MORE]

Z. Petals 

Jul 5, 2007 01:20

For years the FBI and cops in Chicago tried to get something on Al Capone and failed. They could not...

Fred Willis 

Jul 3, 2007 20:30

I would be far more amenable to the arguments for giving clemency now and pardon later to "Scooter", pal of... [MORE]

Barbara Vickroy 

Jul 4, 2007 15:03

What is hardest for me to digest is that your good sense is not merely denied, it is unrecognized... [MORE]

wight martindale 

Jul 3, 2007 17:25

While he was Governor of Texas, on behalf of how many occupants of death row did Mr. Bush determine that... [MORE]

Walter Price 

Jul 3, 2007 10:45

It is with much disdain that Americans looked upon this trial as a failure of the entire Justice System and... [MORE]

Dorothy Wachsstock 

Jul 3, 2007 10:10

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