The Smoking Gun has published 30 letters like this one from Henry Kissinger.
Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton top the list of individuals who wrote a federal judge on behalf of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury examining the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
As the judge considered the appropriate punishment, he received testimonials to Mr. Libby’s character from luminaries like Kissinger.
When representatives of the media asked that the letters be released, Mr. Libby’s lawyers argued against that, saying it “needlessly risks undermining the fair administration of justice” and added there was “the real possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the Internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers.”
The judge rejected these arguments saying that “the court must strive to be as transparent as possible without compromising the fairness of the system or the ability of the court to acquire information relevant and helpful to the sentencing process.”
The letters were released Tuesday and were readily available online.
They are a fascinating collection of testimonies trying to influence Judge Reggie Walton of Federal District Court in Washington DC.
