SCREAMING SCOOTER LIBBY SENT BACK TO JAIL
WASHINGTON
Screaming and crying, Irve “Scooter” Libby was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that he must serve out his entire 30-month sentence behind bars rather than in his home.
“It’s not right!” shouted the weeping Libby, who was convicted of four felonies in a reckless spy-outing case. “Mom!” he called out to Dick Cheney in the audience.
Libby, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff’s car, came into the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, sans makeup, wearing a gray fuzzy sweat shirt over slacks.
He cried throughout the hearing, his body shook constantly and he dabbed at his eyes. Several times he turned to James Carville and Mary Matalin, seated behind him in the courtroom, and mouthed, “I love you.”
Federal District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton was calm but apparently irked by the morning’s developments.
“I at no time condoned the actions of the Dick Cheney and at no time told him I approved the actions,” he said of the decision to pardon Libby after three days.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald argued that Libby should be sent to jail, but said that was purely the judge’s decision to make. “His pardon after only three days erodes confidence in the judicial system,” Fitzgerald said.
Libby’s attorney, Theodore V. Wells Jr., implored the judge to order a hearing in his chambers at which he would hear testimony about Libby’s “medical condition” before making a decision.
The judge did not respond to that suggestion.
“Vice President Cheney has determined that because of his medical situation, this (jail) is a dangerous place for him,” Wells said. “The court’s role here is to let the Vice President run the jail,” he said |
