Historically stingy with granting pardons, US President George W. Bush is facing a flood of requests on his way out of the White House for get-out-of-jail cards or wiping criminals’ records clean.
Junk-bond king Michael Milken, media mogul Conrad Black and US-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh are among more than 2,000 people who have applied to the Justice Department seeking official forgiveness in the form of pardons or sentence commutations.
With Bush’s term ending on Jan. 20, some lawyers are lobbying the White House directly to pardon their clients. Often, departing presidents issue a flurry of pardons or clemencies during the final days of their tenures. That raises the possibility that the president could excuse scores of people, including some who have not been charged, to protect them from future accusations, such as former attorney general Alberto Gonzales or star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.
Those who have worked with Bush predict that will not happen. The White House would not comment on any future pardons.
“I would expect the president’s conservative approach to executive pardons to continue through the remainder of his term,” said Helgi Walker, a former Bush associate White House counsel.
“There would also be a concern about avoiding any appearance of impropriety in the waning days of his administration — i.e., some sort of pardon free-for-all,” Walker said. “I don’t think that is anything that is going to happen on this president’s watch.”
Last week, Bush issued 14 pardons and commuted two sentences, all for small-time crimes such as minor drug offenses, tax evasion and unauthorized use of food stamps. That brought his eight-year total to 171 pardons and eight commutations granted.
That is less than half as many as former presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued, both two-term presidents, like Bush.
A pardon is an official act of forgiveness that removes civil liabilities stemming from a criminal conviction. A commutation reduces or eliminates a person’s sentence.
One Washington lawyer whose clients are directly pursuing the White House for pardons, rather than applying to the Justice Department, said Bush is expected to issue two more rounds of pardons: one just before Christmas, as is customary, and one just before he leaves office. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid hurting the clients’ chances.
Such an end-run around the Justice Department, which advises the president about who should qualify for pardons, signals that Bush may be open to forgiving people who are otherwise ineligible to apply.
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