Judges send Scooter Libby to jail pending appeal
 A federal appeals court ruled that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby must begin his jail sentence in a federal penitentiary pending an appeal of his conviction. Libby, who was a top White House adviser and former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted earlier this year of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in a federal investigation of the outing of former covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail.
"A federal appeals court has refused to delay the imprisonment of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was sentenced in the CIA leak case," a breaking AP news release stated.
CNN's Political Ticker added, "In an order handed down Monday, a three judge panel wrote Libby 'has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question' that regular appeals court will consider when its next term begins in September."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has not set a date for Libby to report to jail. CNN added that Libby could still seek relief from the Supreme Court.
However, Christy Hardin Smith of the blog FireDogLake suggests that this possibility is unlikely to occur.
"Gaining freedom on appeal from the full panel or from the US Supreme Court is an increasingly difficult prospect considering how truly weak the grounds were put forth on Libby’s appeal behalf and how few of these cases are ever accepted for certioriari," she writes. Hardin Smith also posted the text of the ruling, which is only one paragraph in length.
Libby's imprisonment may force President George W. Bush to pardon the former adviser. Many of the President's stalwart conservative allies have said that Libby deserves a pardon because of his government service.
"I hope it puts pressure on the president. He's a man of pronounced loyalties and he should have loyalty to Scooter Libby," AP's Matt Apuzzo reported one member of Libby's legal defense fund, former Ambassador Richard Carlson, as saying. "It would be a travesty for him to go off to prison. The president will take some heat for it. So what? He takes heat for everything."
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