Ex-rodeo boss asks for Libby treatment

[XOKCowboy]

Well this is a fine mess you've gotten us into Shrubbie!

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6348447

San Francisco - The former commissioner of the Colorado Springs Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association who admitted leaking confidential grand jury testimony about baseball slugger Barry Bonds to the media has asked a federal judge for leniency, noting that President Bush commuted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence for a similar crime.

In doing so, attorney Troy Ellerman joins a growing a list of defendants across the country who have made the same arguments for leniency since Bush said the former vice presidential aide's 2 1/2-year sentence for leaking the name of a CIA operative was too harsh and commuted it to probation and a fine.

"As with Mr. Libby, Troy Ellerman is a first-time offender with years of exceptional work as an attorney in both the public and private sectors," Tedmon argued in the court filing, which also noted that Ellerman pleaded guilty while Libby demanded a jury trial. "Mr. Ellerman, unlike Lewis Libby, has done everything in his power to promote the judicial process in expediting this case to a prompt resolution." Tedmon noted that Libby and Ellerman were both convicted of leaking confidential information to reporters and then lying to investigators.

But he said there was one dramatic difference between their cases: "Mr. Libby's conduct involved matters of national security, while Mr. Ellerman's conduct has no nexus to national security." Tedmon said in an interview Tuesday that both men have suffered embarrassment and lost professions because of their crimes and that both should be treated similarly by the judicial system.

[fryguy]

1. the "Libby Motion"

destin to enter the legal defense counsel's lexicon.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/washington/04commute.html

In commuting I. Lewis Libby Jr.’s 30-month prison sentence on Monday, President Bush drew on the same array of arguments about the federal sentencing system often made by defense lawyers — and routinely and strenuously opposed by his own Justice Department.

Critics of the system have a long list of complaints. Sentences, they say, are too harsh. Judges are allowed to take account of facts not proven to the jury. The defendant’s positive contributions are ignored, as is the collateral damage that imprisonment causes the families involved.

On Monday, Mr. Bush made use of every element of that critique in a detailed statement setting out his reasons for commuting Mr. Libby’s sentence — handing an unexpected gift to defense lawyers around the country, who scrambled to make use of the president’s arguments in their own cases.

<snip>

Indeed, Mr. Bush’s decision may have given birth to a new sort of legal document.

“I anticipate that we’re going to get a new motion called ‘the Libby motion,’ ” Professor Podgor said. “It will basically say, ‘My client should have got what Libby got, and here’s why.’ ”

<more>

[XOKCowboy]

6. Bush's Legacy

He pays a lot of lip service to it but shit like this will be what he's remembered for.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. defense lawyers can try this ploy

but it won't work. Libby's commutation has absolutely no bearing on anybody else's punishment.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. The attorney who leaked Barry Bonds' testimony in the BALCO case

has asked for the "Libby defense" too.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/11/business/NA-GEN-US-BALCO-Attorney-Libby.php

[XOKCowboy]

4. Same guy...

Troy Ellerman

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Oops

I gotta learn to read. :blush: