It’s Nice To Have Friends

I would never have associated the actions for which he was convicted with his character. ~Henry Kissinger on Libby

That’s interesting.  I suppose it is the point of having character witnesses to provide some evidence that, despite the man’s obvious guilt of this crime, he is presumably not normally the sort who goes around breaking the law.  However, it would have really helped Libby in the sentencing phase if he had expressed remorse for breaking the law and if his public advocates had been a bit more circumspect in their arguments on his behalf.  Not surprisingly, the old “perjury is just a technicality” and “there is no underlying crime” lines advanced by more than a few Libby defenders were not likely to endear a judge to the defendant.

My favourite of the excerpted letters has to be the one where the writer assures us that Libby cares about his friends for “who they are.”  How reassuring!