Liberty gained

The Baltimore Sun

President Bush's rationale for commuting I. Lewis Libby Jr.'s 30-month sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice seems clear: He had the power to keep a former top aide out of jail, so he did.

The decision was grossly inappropriate. Mr. Libby was involved in a case that went right to the Oval Office. By overruling the judge's sentencing decision, the president can be accused at minimum of favoritism, and at worst of buying the silence of someone who knows plenty about the genesis of the Iraq war and other intrigues. Mr. Bush should have recused himself from the matter, as Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales did. But of course he couldn't stay out of it because there was no other way to help Mr. Libby. It's not as though he could have turned the decision over to Vice President Dick Cheney, whom Mr. Libby served directly.

So Mr. Libby got a commutation he didn't formally request without having to serve even a day in jail - a rare if not unprecedented occasion in the Bush era - because the president determined his sentence was "excessive."

Though perfectly legal, the Libby commutation represents another abuse of the constitutional structure of checks and balances and the promise of equal justice before the law for which the Bush administration has shown such disregard.

With his presidency severely damaged by the Iraq war and his approval ratings in the tank, Mr. Bush no doubt reckoned he had little to lose by sparing Mr. Libby from the slammer. He might at least hold onto the diehard band of Republican conservatives who consider the former aide a loyal soldier, and possibly even a fall guy.

Mr. Bush didn't go so far as to pardon Mr. Libby, but that may still happen after all appeals are exhausted.

Two and a half years in federal prison does seem a bit much for lying to a grand jury to impede an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity for which no one was ever charged. But federal sentences are often out of whack, usually because of mandatory minimums that give judges little choice.

There are some 2,000 inmates in federal prisons with commutation requests pending. It's probably a good guess, though, that none of them has a friend at the top with the power to unilaterally set aside the rule of law. Rank still has its privileges.

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