What the Fuck is "Commuting"?

Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11658207

NPR.org, July 2, 2007 · President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.

Mr. Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years' probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.

The president's move came hours after the federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That decision put pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby was convicted in March of lying to authorities and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative's identity. He was the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.

Libby had hoped that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would put his sentence on hold because he believed he had a good chance of overturning the conviction on appeal. The court unanimously rejected the request.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons had not yet assigned Libby to a prison or given him a date to surrender, but last week it designated him as federal inmate No. 28301-016.

After the court's ruling, Libby's attorneys did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Libby's supporters, who raised millions of dollars for his defense fund, had immediately renewed the call for a pardon.

"I hope it puts pressure on the president. He's a man of pronounced loyalties and he should have loyalty to Scooter Libby," former Ambassador Richard Carlson, a member of Libby's defense fund, said after the ruling. "It would be a travesty for him to go off to prison. The president will take some heat for it. So what? He takes heat for everything."

No one was charged with leaking Valerie Plame's identity, but Libby was convicted of lying about his conversations with reporters regarding the operative.

From NPR reports and The Associated Press