The right wing nuts are really up in arms over the Libby case. Announcing his decision today to send Libby to jail during his appeal, Judge Reggie Walton revealed that after he sentenced Libby to jail last week, he received “many angry letters in response to the sentencing, wishing bad things to me and my family.” (Reported by pachacutec at firedoglake). Walton added that he had thrown some of the letters away, but then decided to start saving them because “in the event someone were to act on these threats, a record would need to remain.”
Walton, who was appointed to judgeships by Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, has a reputation for being a tough judge. According to Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post, he is known among local defense attorneys as “a ‘long-ball hitter’—a jurist willing to put defendants away for a long time to deter future crimes.” She also reported that a couple of years ago, at the age of 56, Walton stopped his car while driving his wife and daughter to the airport in order to tackle and subdue a man who was beating up a cab driver. I can’t help but think that sending threatening letters to Reggie Walton was a bad move.
Saw Douglas Kmiec on the News Hour tonight attempting to argue that the whole thing was verkempt because the AG unconstitutionally delegated authority to Patrick Fitgerald. I now understand why the judge said the letter Kmiec signed ( a brief really) was less than he would have expected from first year law students. God, the hangers on are awful!
Why aren’t these threats being investigated? Isn’t threatening or attempting to intimidate a judge, especially regarding a case currently under consideration, a criminal offense?
Let’s throw some more neocons in jail.
Why are the neocons whining? Libby is jewish, as are almost all of the neocons. It’s well-known Israel will harbor and refuse to extradite foreign fugitives from justice.
Why doesn’t Libby just run for Israel?
Nothing like some judicial sarcasm. See John Dean’s latest column at Findlaw for a link to the judge’s slam-down cited by JackD.
These people are just so “principled” (John Dickerson over at Slate should understand this is different from “consistent when dealing with friends”), huh?
Or, as Rush said, I guess we have “poked the whale” on this one.