Pardon me

BarbinMD at DailyKos has found a little known (at least to me) provision in the rules governing presidential pardons:

§ 1.2 Eligibility for filing petition for pardon.

No petition for pardon should be filed until the expiration of a waiting period of at least five years after the date of the release of the petitioner from confinement or, in case no prison sentence was imposed, until the expiration of a period of at least five years after the date of the conviction of the petitioner. Generally, no petition should be submitted by a person who is on probation, parole, or supervised release.

On its surface, this would seem to preclude a presidential pardon for Libby during the remainder of Bush's term. However, these rules are obviously not binding on the Prez. Otherwise, how could Gerald Ford have pardoned Nixon, who hadn't even been tried yet? I doubt if there's much to this, and I suspect the pardon will occur -- albeit not till late in Bush's term.