Dems want Cheney to recuse himself from Libby pardon talks

Two top House Judiciary Committee Democrats are asking Vice President Dick Cheney to recuse himself from all talks about a possible pardon of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.”

In a letter to the vice president, Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, also asked that Cheney “refrain from further public comment on the prosecution.”

{mosads}Libby was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison this week for misleading authorities who were investigating the leak that revealed the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The lawmakers’ request was triggered by a statement Cheney made following the sentencing. The vice president said he hoped “our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man.”

Conyers and Nadler see his comments as a possible “blurring” of the “distinction between the institutional interests of the Office of Vice President and your personal interests in the ultimate results of the prosecution.”

They note that Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor in the case, said a “cloud” hung over Cheney.

“It would be deeply divisive, and invite deep cynicism and disrespect for the legal process,” Conyers and Nadler wrote, “were the American people to conclude that Mr. Libby undertook actions that subjected him to criminal liability to protect you, knowing or believing, or having the facts ultimately reveal, that you would thereafter take steps to protect him from the consequences of his criminal conduct.”