Predictions: Who's On Bush's List Of Presidential Pardons?

CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller reports that the pardons Wednesday bring to 58 the number of pardons granted by Mr. Bush.

By comparison, his father, former President George H.W. Bush, granted 74 in four years; former President Bill Clinton granted 396 in eight years; former President Ronald Reagan did 393 in eight; former President Jimmy Carter did 534 in four. And former President Richard Nixon, who got one of Mr. Ford's 382 pardons, granted 863, reports Knoller.

Some pardons, like the one Mr. Ford gave Nixon in 1974, protect recipients from going to jail or reduce their sentences.

But Mr. Bush has granted clemency mainly to allow people who committed relatively minor offenses and served their sentences long ago to clear their names
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/28/politics/main889049.shtml

As many wonder if Bush will pardon Lewis Libby, TIME takes a look back at notorious presidential pardons in American histor

VIETNAM DRAFT DODGERS, 1977

His Oval Office chair was barely warm when President Jimmy Carter fulfilled a controversial campaign promise on his first day in the White House by issuing a pardon to those who avoided serving in the Vietnam war by fleeing the U.S. or not registering. President Gerald Ford had earlier introduced a conditional amnesty, but Carter, hoping to heal the war's wounds, made no conditions. He did, however, exclude many groups of individuals from the pardon: deserters were not eligible, nor were soldiers who had received less-than-honorable discharges. Also not included were the civilians who had protested the war.

RICHARD NIXON, 1974

A little over a year after he resigned in the wake of Watergate, Richard Nixon received a highly controversial pardon from President Gerald Ford. Some charged that the pardon was part of an agreement reached with Ford when Nixon left office; others, including the New York Times, simply called the move unwise and unjust. Ford, who announced the pardon on live television on Sept. 8, 1974, called the Nixon family's situation "an American tragedy in which we all have played a part." He added: "It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." Ford, however, may have also written his own end, politically speaking. Many believe the Nixon pardon was the reason he lost the 1976 election to Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.

MARK FELT (a.k.a. DEEP THROAT) & EDWARD MILLER, 1981

These two men became the highest-ranking convicted criminals in the FBI. Felt, who revealed himself in 2005 as the whistleblower known as Deep Throat, and Miller were found guilty in 1978 of breaking into Vietnam protesters' homes and offices without warrants during the Nixon presidency. They had been trying to keep the FBI and Nixon informed of activities that they considered to be undertaken by hostile foreign powers and collaborators. Overstepping his own Justice Department, President Ronald Reagan pardoned the two men in the midst of their appeals, after three years of prosecution proceedings. Reagan argued that America was generous to the thousands of draft dodgers who were pardoned for refusing to serve their country in Vietnam. "We can be no less generous to two men who acted on high principle to bring an end to the terrorism that was threatening our nation."

GEORGE STEINBRENNER, 1989

Indicted on 14 criminal counts on April 5, 1974, the owner of the New York Yankees plead guilty to obstruction of justice and conspiring to make illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Steinbrenner, a major Republican donor, allegedly knew the money he was donating was not going through regular election procedures. Not wanting to appear soft on crime, President Ronald Reagan would only pardon Steinbrenner if the Yankees' owner admitted to the crime.

CASPAR WEINBERGER, 1992

Former Defense Secretary Weinberger and six other defendants were criticized for participating in the transfer of U.S. anti-tank missiles to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Weinberger was charged with lying to the independent counsel after he resigned in 1987. But the pardon by President George H.W. Bush essentially halted the legal proceedings against Weinberger and his fellow defendants, as well as against Bush himself, who could have been called to testify as a former member of the Reagan administration. Independent council Lawrence Walsh, who had been investigating the affair, disapproved of the pardon, saying: "The Iran-Contra coverup... has now been completed."

PATTY HEARST, 2001

The granddaughter of publishing titan William Randolph Hearst made headlines in 1974 when an urban guerilla group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped her from her Berkeley, Calif., apartment. Two months later the 19-year-old was photographed robbing a San Francisco bank while brandishing an assault rifle ?- apparently she had taken up her captors' cause. At trial her defense lawyer focused not only on her abuse and the fact that the kidnappers forced her to take part in the robbery, but on the pervasive brainwashing by her attackers that caused her to sympathize with them. The defense didn't work and Hearst was convicted of bank robbery on March 20, 1976. She was imprisoned for almost two years before Jimmy Carter commuted her seven-year sentence and freed her from jail. But it was President Bill Clinton who granted her a full pardon on the last day of his presidency, January 20, 2001.

MARC RICH, 2001

In 1983, financier Rich was indicted for evading more than $48 million in taxes, and charged with 51 counts of tax fraud, as well as running illegal oil deals with Iran during the 1979-1980 hostage crisis. During his last week in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who had fled the U.S. during his prosecution and was residing in Switzerland. Clinton's eleventh-hour move, along with pardons of his half-brother, Roger, and former business partner Susan McDougal, outraged Republicans and Democrats alike. The Rich pardon sparked an investigation into whether it was bought by the hefty donations Rich's ex-wife, Denise, had given to the Clintons and the Democrats. In the end, investigators did not find enough evidence to indict Clinton.
http://www.time.com/time/2007/presidential_pardons/10.html

Thank, Bill Clinton, and others, for making this hard to beef about.

This little perk has got to go - for all parties. It's just an abuse of power.

Well, I'm working on a list of predictions, not a score card.

Anyone have others they want to add to the prediction list to see how accurate we are when Bush's term comes to an end?

Hard for Libs

Very very interesting.

I don't know that I can add to the list, but this is a great post.

When the time comes for W's pardons let's all keep in mind Slick Willy's.

We may find that W is as venal as Billy Boy was, but I doubt it.

We need to keep this thread alive for the next 13 months or so so we can put the Bush pardons in context.

This may mean a regular meaningless posting by A2K members, but that is hardly a stretch.

No Holiday Pardon for Libby
By LARA JAKES JORDAN - 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) ?- President Bush granted pardons Tuesday to carjackers, drug dealers, a moonshiner and a violator of election laws, but not to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his vice president's former top aide who was convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative.

In all, Bush pardoned 29 convicts and reduced the prison sentence of one more in the end-of-the-year presidential tradition.

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Bush has granted 142 pardons and commuted five sentences since taking office in 2001 ?- lagging far behind the pace set by most modern presidents.

The list was issued with little fanfare Tuesday afternoon by the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department. Bush was not expected to issue any more pardons this year.

In July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff from serving any prison time after being convicted of perjury and obstructing justice. Libby, who recently dropped appeals to have his convictions overturned, has paid a $250,000 fine and remains on two years probation.

Libby was the only person to face criminal charges in the case of the 2003 leak of then-CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Plame, who has since left the CIA, contends the White House was trying to discredit her husband, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy.

A pardon amounts to federal forgiveness for one's crime, while a commutation cuts short an existing prison term.

Nearly all of those to win pardons this year were small-time crooks who at most were imprisoned for five years. Many of them never served time at all, and instead were fined or put on probation.

On the list this year was William Charles Jordan Jr., a 64-year-old retiree from Dover, Pa., who was pardoned for his role in a college and NFL football gambling ring that federal authorities shut down on Super Bowl Sunday in 1997.

Jordan said he did not want his eight grandchildren to know he was a felon, so he obtained the necessary paperwork through his congressman. He learned Tuesday the pardon came through.

"It's a nice Christmas present," Jordan said. "I didn't know what the odds were on getting one. I just sent the stuff in and hoped."

Others pardoned included:

_Jeffrey James Bruce, of Chandler, Okla., convicted in 1994 of possessing stolen mail. He served five years probation and paid $4,789 in restitution.

_Jackie Ray Clayborn, of Deer, Ark., sentenced in 1993 to five months in prison, two years of supervised release and $3,000 in fines on marijuana charges.

_John Fornaby, of Boynton Beach, Fla., convicted in 1991 of conspiring to distribute cocaine. He served three years in prison.

_Melton Harrell, of Cairo, Ga., sentenced in 1976 to two years probation and a $200 fine for stealing government property.

_Saul Kaplan of Scranton, Pa., sentenced in 1992 for violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and fined $25,000.

_John F. McDermott, from Moretown, Vt., sentenced in 1995 for receiving kickbacks in defense procurement contracts. He served two years probation and paid a $10,000 fine.

_William James Norman of Tallahassee, Fla., convicted in 1970 for possessing and running an unregistered distillery that did not carry the proper signage and illegally produced alcoholic drinks made from mash. He was sentenced to three years probation.

_James Albert Bodendieck Sr., of New Athens, Ill., sentenced in 1959 to three years probation for transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines.

_Glanus Terrell Osborne of Dallas, Ga., sentenced in 1990 for possessing a stolen motor vehicle. He served three years probation, including 90 days in a community corrections center, and paid a $2,000 fine.

Additionally, Bush cut short the 1992 prison sentence of crack cocaine dealer Michael Dwayne Short of Hyattsville, Md., who will be released on Feb. 8 after serving 15 years of his 19-year sentence. Short's commutation comes the day the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to allow some 19,500 federal prison inmates, most of them black, to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences.

Short must still serve a term of supervised release.

Molly Gill, spokeswoman for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, applauded Bush's decision to spring Short early. She described Short as a first-time convict who played only a small role in a Washington-area crack ring.

"Commutations can only impact individual lives," Gill said. "What we need is systemic change to federal sentencing laws, and that is up to Congress. Congress should address all mandatory minimums so the courts can prevent unfair sentences like Short's from recurring."

Compared to most of his immediate predecessors, Bush has granted far fewer pardons for the length of time he's been in the White House.

President Clinton issued a total of 457 in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. President Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Carter issued 563 in four years.

Since World War II, the largest number of pardons and commutations ?- 2,031 ?- came from President Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

Just to keep it from going too dormant.

Lets not forget the bet I made with Blatham...

http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56457&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=3380