Published: July 3 2007
Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has repeatedly undermined America’s image as a country where justice is above politics, where truth is an ally of good government and where all men stand equal before the law. He did so again on Monday, when he commuted the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former White House loyalist found guilty of trying to pervert the cause of justice by lying.
The facts of the Libby affair – a tortuous saga of journalists and White House aides and unmasked CIA operatives and lies about the Iraq war – remain opaque and impenetrable to this day. Even the prosecutor in the case called it a “he-said, he-said, she-said, he-said, he-said, she-said, he-said, he-said, he-said” case. The full facts may never be known.
But one thing remains clear: Mr Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice – and those are serious crimes. And as Mr Bush said himself on Monday: “Our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable.”
Mr Libby was held accountable, by a federal court that imposed a punishment well within the sentencing guidelines used by federal judges in cases such as his. That may seem unfair to those who see Mr Libby as no more than a fall guy for the White House, who did nothing wrong but lie to cover up some political shenanigans.
But commuting his sentence, and removing all jail time, sends the wrong message: that politics is above the law, and those who commit crimes in its name will stay out of prison.
Mr Bush may feel he has little to lose, in the court of public opinion. His poll ratings are already at historic lows; sparing Mr Libby cannot hurt much. But he is wrong: every time the White House pretends it is above the law, America suffers. For six years, the Bush administration has exuded an arrogance of power that infects every branch of executive activity, from the treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism, to the political sackings of federal prosecutors, to the vice-president’s attempts to escape congressional scrutiny by pretending he is not part of the executive at all.
The glory of the American system is that power is meant to be, at all times and in all things, constrained by law. Mr Bush will go down in history as a president who repeatedly pushed the bounds of executive power, and skirted the laws meant to restrain him – to the profound detriment of his legacy, and his nation.