Joe Wilson: 'Did he do this so that Libby would shut up?'

David Edwards and Muriel Kane Published: Tuesday July 3, 2007
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CNN interviewed Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, about the commutation of "Scooter" Libby's sentence soon after it was announced on Monday. "There's very little that surprises me from this administration any more," said Wilson. "I think it's corrupt from top to bottom."

"I don't give really a darn whether Scooter Libby goes to jail or not," he continued. "What I care about is that the rule of law and the system of justice that has undergirded our democracy for 220 years is upheld. And that is what has been subverted by the president's actions today. ... By commuting the sentence, I think the president raises the very real suspicion that he is party to the obstruction of justice or the coverup of the original crime. ... I think the public has a right to know whether there was a quid pro quo in this. Did he do this so that Libby would shut up?"

"I believe the president owes the American people an explanation," Wilson concluded, "so the American people themselves can see what it was the prosecutor was talking about when he talked about a cloud over the vice president's office. And if he doesn't do so, I think Congress should use its full authority to investigate."

NBC's Today Show offered more extensive coverage of the Libby commutation on Tuesday, including reactions from Democratic and Republican candidates and interviews with Joseph Wilson and with conservative Bill Kristol, who applauded the president's "courage and character" and claimed that "there was no underlying crime."

Wilson expanded on his own earlier remarks, saying, "The fact that the president short-circuited our system of justice by giving Scooter Libby a get-out-of-jail-free card, thereby eliminating any incentive that he would tell the truth to the prosecutor, guarantees that there is a cloud of suspicion put over the office of the president and makes him potentially a suspect in an ongoing obstruction of justice case. ... This was a coverup."

When asked about the fact that Libby was not convicted of any underlying crime, Wilson replied, "Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a mobster."

Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball concluded the segment by pointing out that "the president had to act ... or else this guy would have gone to prison."

"This war is immensely hated by most Americans," Matthews continued. "They don't trust the way it was sold to us. And now it will look like one more seal has been closed on us. ... Scooter Libby knows so much ... All this information now goes with Scooter Libby into freedom and one less chance to get the information. You have to make your own conclusions. ... There's not a journalist in Washington that wouldn't like to have Scooter Libby today under sodium pentathol and find out exactly what happened."

The following video clip is from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast on July 2.