President Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby means that after a decade, he can move forward, but still, it shows that the entire situation could have been handled differently, and that then-special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald did not have to pursue his investigation the way he did, Rep. Lee Zeldin said Friday.
"When you look at the scales of justice, you could have handled this entire situation differently and especially with the additional information that came to light afterwards, it's obvious the special prosecutor at this time did not have to pursue the course he did as he did it," the New York Republican told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime."
However, when asked if Trump was trying to send a message with his pardon in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's continuing investigation into his presidential campaign, Zeldin said he believes Trump "used this case alone on its merit."
"He has people around him who know Scooter Libby well," said Zeldin. "The president apparently doesn't know Scooter Libby. The people around him do. They talk about his decades of service to our country."
Libby was convicted in 2007 on charges of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.
President George W. Bush later commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence, but didn't issue a pardon despite intense pressure from Cheney. No one was ever charged with the leak itself. Libby was also fined $250,000.
However, Zeldin himself did compare the Libby case with that of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and, for that matter, Mueller's investigation.
"You don't identify a person and then just try desperately to create a crime for anywhere to try to take someone down," said Zeldin. "Instead, you should be investigating a crime, and try to bring these cases to a conclusion. Instead of what we are seeing right now, it happens. It's prompted by James Comey leaking classified information to the media, which is a crime in the end of itself."
There is no evidence Trump colluded with the Russians, he continued, but Mueller's probe has turned into a "43-headed monster and all kinds of directions with no end in sight."
Further, Zeldin said he does think that the Libby conviction and pardon should send a message, intended or not, to the justice system that "we should not be identifying people and desperately chasing after crimes."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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