Libby Agrees with Marc Rich Pardon

House Hearing on Clinton's Pardons


Thursday, March 1, 2001



 WAXMAN: OK. The first--but the president gave other reasons. And the first reason the president gave was, and I quote, "I understood that the other oil companies that had structured transactions like those in which Mr. Rich and Mr. Green were indicted, were instead sued civilly by the government," end quote. Was the president right about this statement?

LIBBY: Yes, sir. There were other companies which had similar transactions. And to the best of my knowledge, those were generally handled civilly.

WAXMAN: The second reason the president gave, was--and then I quote again from him--"I was informed that in 1985, in a related case against a trading partner of Mr. Rich and Mr. Green, the Energy Department, which was responsible for enforcing the governing law, found that the manner in which the Rich-Green companies had accounted for these transactions was proper."

Was the president right about this statement?

LIBBY: Yes, sir, I believe he was. And that would be the Arco proposed remedial order, issued by the Department of Energy.

WAXMAN: The third reason the president gave was, quote, "two highly regarded tax experts, Bernard Wolfman of Harvard Law School, and Martin Ginsberg of Georgetown University Law Center, reviewed the transactions in question, and concluded that the companies were correct in their U.S. income tax treatment of all of the items in question, and that there was no unreported federal income, or additional tax liability attributable to any of the challenged transactions," end quote. Was the president correct about this?

LIBBY: Yes, sir.

WAXMAN: The fourth reason the president gave, was, quote, "in order to settle the government's 

case against them, the two men's companies had paid approximately $200 million in fines, penalties and taxes, most of which might not even have been warranted under the Wolfman-Ginsberg analysis that the companies had followed the law, and correctly reported their income," end quote. Was the president correct on this statement?

LIBBY: Yes sir.

WAXMAN: The fifth reason the president gave was, quote, "The Justice Department, in 1989, rejected the use of racketeering statutes in tax cases like this one," end quote. Was the president right about this?

LIBBY: That's my understanding of the Justice Department manual.

WAXMAN: Well, Mr. Libby, it appears that you agree with most of the points that the president made. Let me ask you the bottom-line question.

President Clinton apparently concluded that Mr. Rich had not committed the crimes he had been accused of. Do you agree with this? Do you think that Mr. Rich is a tax fraud and a criminal, or do you agree with President Clinton's assessments of the merits of the case?

LIBBY: I believe, sir, that based on all of the evidence available to defense counsel, the best interpretation of the evidence is that they did not any civil--any tax, even as a civil matter. That would be the interpretation given by the two tax professors.

WAXMAN: And therefore, that there should not have been a criminal liability.

LIBBY: Based on the evidence available to the defense, that would be correct, sir.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/pardonshearingtext030101.htm



For more on the Marc Rich pardon, see:



http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/7/6/24738/59490/mbalibbytrial/Libby-the-Marc-Rich-Pardon-and-Congressional-Hearings

Can Trump Pardon Himself?

No, Trump should NOT be above the law; and NO he cannot pardon himself.

"Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself."   - Memorandum Opinion for the Deptury Attorney General - Office of Legal Counsel

https://www.justice.gov/file/20856/download

Can Trump Pardon State Crimes?

 Here's what at least one legal scholar says about it:

''The downside for Trump is that his presidential pardon power does not extend to state crimes — for the same reasons that underlie the dual sovereignty principle. Mueller, of course, knows this, and may be setting up the infrastructure to allow Schneiderman to pursue any prosecutions in the event he can’t – or to conduct them simultaneously.''

Asha Rangappa is a former special agent in the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI in New York City. She is currently an associate dean at Yale Law School.







http://thehill.com/node/348989

Dino Says Trump Can Pardon State Crimes

1944   PM:   Raven   [Quote]     -- 1:18pm -- Fri, Apr 13, 18 pst
[Quoting Wishbone: "I believe the State of New York is a party to some of Manaforts charges.
He can still be convicted in New York and serve a lot of time."]

Not with a Presidential pardon.

Libby on Rich's Pardon

Some of you may recall the rightwinger outrage at President Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich. Many of you probably aren't aware, though, of who worked hard to try to get Rich off the hook. And even fewer of you are probably aware that Congressman Waxman forced Scooter Libby to testify under oath that he agreed with Clinton's reasoning, and that Mark Rich should have never been prosecuted in the first place.

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