Joe Wilson Says Congress Should Investigate Bush

Wilson: Congress Should Investigate Bush's Participation in Obstruction of Justice
By Spencer Ackerman - July 2, 2007, 7:00 PM


Just got off the phone with Joe Wilson, whose exposure of the hollowness of the Niger-Iraq uranium claim set in motion the chain of events that led to Scooter Libby's perjury and, today, his sentence's commutation by President Bush. Wilson -- who is pursuing a civil suit against Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney -- called on Bush and Cheney to release the transcripts of their interviews with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "to let the American people know what they knew and when they knew it." If not, Wilson says, "Congress should hold hearings on the president's role in the obstruction of justice."
Wilson:

"From my viewpoint, the president has stepped in to short circuit the rule of law and the system of justice in our country. In so doing, he has acknowledged Mr. Libby's guilt for, among other things, obstruction of justice, which by definition is covering up for somebody in a crime. By commuting his sentence, he has brought himself and his office into reasonable suspicion of participation in an obstruction of justice. The commutation of (Libby's) sentence in and of itself is participation in obstruction of justice."

Asked if he expected Bush to pardon or commute Libby's sentence, Wilson replied, "I have never known what to expect. The administration is now trying call this compromise. At end of day, it's allowing a neoconservative cult to engage in special pleading. … This from the president who refused to listen to the Pope's clemency appeals over the execution of first female prisoner in Texas since the Civil War," referring to the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker while Bush was governor.

Wilson noted the commutation will have no impact on his lawsuit against Libby, Rove and Cheney. Today's presidential decision, he said, "should demonstrate to the American people beyond a reasonable doubt how unbelievably corrupt this administration is from top to bottom."


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....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free