House Republicans, including Duncan Hunter, whom I consult for, and Dana Rohrabacher, have been fighting to get a pardon for Compean and Ramos, the border agents who were sent to jail for more than a decade each after shooting a fleeing drug dealer in the butt after they believed he was pulling a gun on them.

Today, the people fighting to make sure that Compean and Ramos get the same justice as Dick Cheney's pal Scooter Libby had a somewhat surprising ally wander into their camp.

After presiding over a Senate hearing today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has decided to ask President Bush to commute the sentences of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, an aide for the California Democrat told WND.

Feinstein will have a letter delivered to the White House tomorrow, said spokesman Scott Gerber.

Following the Senate judiciary committee's examination of the controversial prosecution, according to Gerber, the senator said "it became very clear the sentences did not match the crime."

Ramos and Compean are serving 11- and 12-year prison sentences, respectively, after a jury convicted them of violating federal gun laws and covering up the shooting of a drug smuggler as he fled back to Mexico after driving across the border with 742 pounds of marijuana. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's office gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, immunity to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents.

Feinstein concluded the hearing today with a vow to look further into why prosecutors charged the men under section 924(c) of the U.S. code, which requires a 10-year sentence for using or carrying a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.

Feinstein, during questioning of Sutton, argued the statute did not apply to Ramos and Compean in their pursuit of a drug smuggler at the Mexican border, because there was no underlying crime.

Gerber told WND that Feinstein has concluded the use of 924(c) was "prosecutorial overreach."

Very seldom do I end up on the same side of an issue with Difi, but it's nice to have a prominent Democrat standing up for Compean and Ramos, who I believe deserved to be put on administrative leave for 5 days instead of being tried in the first place.