The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial: Commuting traitor’s term an unwise move
Remember Scooter Libby?
He was convicted of misleading Congress over the outing of a covert CIA operative and was branded a traitor by many, but he never spent a day in jail because President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.
Libby – the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney – was the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair. The commutation drew stern rebukes from both sides of the aisle.
We mention this by way of expressing disappointment with President Barack Obama’s controversial decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s 35-year prison sentence for giving classified government and military materials to the WikiLeaks website.