"The President shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."
--The Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 2
The Supreme Court has interpreted this language to include the power to grant pardons, conditional pardons, commutations of sentence, conditional commutations of sentence, remissions of fines and forfeitures, respites and amnesties. According to the Justice Department, President Bush has issued 113 pardons and 3 commutations of sentence, not counting Libby. Compare that with Mr. Clinton, who granted 396 pardons, 61 commutations and 2 remissions of fines in his two terms, most of which occurred on his last day in office.
How come I didn't hear a peep out of you when President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a Clinton "crony" who was facing prison time for tax evasion after Rich's former wife donated $70,000.00 to Hilary Clinton's Senate campaign fund? Or his brother Roger, who was indicted for tax fraud and sentenced to two years, but was pardoned before he served a day behind bars?
How about his pardon of those 16 FALN terrorists, members of a Puerto Rican Nationalist group who set off 120 bombs, mostly in New York and Chicago and were convicted of criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, bomb-making and sedition? Didn't hear you complain about that, either. I agree with you...if you break the law, you should pay the price. The difference here is that the Libby matter involved an overzealous prosecutor who couldn't get a conviction because no crime had been committed, so he "Martha Stewarted" Libby.
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