Scooter Libby is getting 30 months in prison plus is being fined $250,000 for obstructing justice in the only case brought by Fitzgerald who looked into who outed Valerie Plame.
For the record, Plame was outed by Richard Armitage, who was never charged with any criminal acts. Plame's status as a covert agent was alleged, and Fitzgerald appears to have inserted her status into his papers in support of a harsh sentence, despite the fact that Libby was not on trial for identifying Plame.
Sticky Notes sums things up succinctly.
I expect this to be appealed, and the sentence to be reduced in the process. I get the feeling that the judge was swayed by Fitzgerald's introduction of information not in evidence at trial, which claimed that Plame was indeed a covert agent at the time.
In other words, he was trying to get Libby sentenced for a crime he did not commit.
Had Libby been sentenced pursuant to the "Sandy Berger" standards, Libby would have gotten off with a slap on the wrist, a small fine, and might have had to give up his law license.
That's what bothers me. Libby was convicted of a far less serious crime, and yet is doing more time than Berger - who destroyed and stole classified documents, and then lied about it and never served a day in prison and will be able to regain his clearance in 2009.
Others blogging: LGF, Macranger, Lorie at Wizbang, Ace of Spades, and Memeorandum has the rundown.
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