Libby ruling illegal

Libby, like Paris, will still have to report to jail.

Bush’s legally flawed and incomplete ruling will not stand.

President Bush’s use of his power of clemency to commute the 30-month jail sentence for Libby while allowing the rest of his sentence imposed by the court to stand is not allowed by law.

Also President Bush said he commuted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30-month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice because it was "severe" and "excessive," but this has now been found to be wrong by several former prosecutors and sentencing law experts have who said that the sentence was not unusually harsh thus undermining Bush’s legal reason for the clemency.

"Judge Walton said Tuesday "that the law did not allow for imposing a period of supervised release on an individual who had not first completed a jail sentence."

This means that Bush’s attempt to commute the sentence is illegal and Libby will have to report to jail, as ordered by the original court and upheld by the appeal court.

“As Libby doesn’t qualify under the guidelines for a pardon he will have to serve his full sentence,” his lawyer said.