In case you were wondering what the Judge who presided over Scooter Libby’s recent court appearance thought about Bush commuting Libby’s sentence:
In his first public remarks since President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison term, Judge Reggie Walton said he was “perplexed” by the president’s belief that Walton’s sentence was “excessive.”
Walton, a Bush appointee to the D.C. district court, wrote yesterday in a court filing that while he doesn’t question Bush’s constitutional authority to commute prison sentences, Libby’s 30-month sentence was “consistent with the bottom end of the applicable sentencing range as properly calculated under the United States Sentencing Guidelines.” Underscoring his displeasure with the commutation — which calls his professionalism into question — Walton referenced Alberto Gonzales’s June 1 statement that sentencing guidelines should be considered “a minimum for judges, not merely a suggestion.”
Source: tpmmuckraker.com
