December 8, 2005: Newspaper Calls on Readers to Donate to Libby Defense Fund

The New York Sun exhorts its readers to contribute to the Lewis Libby defense fund (see After October 28, 2005). The Sun, in an op-ed, calls the Libby Legal Defense Fund “a distinguished, bipartisan group” formed to help pay the legal expenses for Libby, whom the Sun says “is the target of a witch hunt by a special counsel,” Patrick Fitzgerald. The government should be paying for Libby’s legal expenses, the editorial states: “After all, he is being prosecuted for carrying out his official duties, defending the president’s agenda on the war in Iraq against an effort to undermine it by the president’s political and ideological rivals. There is no suggestion whatsoever by the prosecutor that Mr. Libby sought to use his political office for private gain.” The editorial goes on to call the case against Libby “frivolous,” and says Americans of all political stripes should consider donating to Libby’s defense, whether they be “a neoconservative who believes that the Iraq war spread freedom… a defender of the freedom of the press who believes that government officials in America should be free to talk to the press without fear of being thrown in prison by a prosecutor… a Clinton loyalist who remembers how special prosecutors were used against the previous administration… a believer in a strong presidency who thinks the whole idea of criminalizing policy differences has a tendency to sap the boldness of the president [, or] a believer in the underdog and want Mr. Libby to have a fair fight against the special prosecutor.” [New York Sun, 12/8/2005]