Presidents pardon the unsavory

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Giving the president the power to pardon was sort of an afterthought for the founders, coming when Alexander Hamilton pointed out that "in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth." And that was exactly the scenario when Washington called out the army to deal with farmers protesting high taxes levied on whiskey to pay down the war debt. He ended the rebellion and pardoned the rebels.

In 1865, President Andrew Johnson, a southerner, also figured the timing was right — with Congress not in session — to pardon former Confederates willing to take a loyalty oath. This act of mercy contributed to his own impeachment.

Presidential pardons became truly notorious with Richard Nixon, who was both the giver and receiver of questionable acts of mercy. His pardon of Jimmy Hoffa, who was just starting a 15-year sentence for fraud and jury tampering in 1971, resulted in Hoffa and his Teamsters supporting Nixon’s re-election. But by 1975, both the giver and receiver were gone — Nixon, resigned, and Hoffa in an undisclosed location.

Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, sacrificed his chances at re-election when he pardoned Nixon, and Ford’s successor, Jimmy Carter, didn’t enhance his chances when he pardoned all those who fled the United States to avoid serving in Vietnam. Ronald Reagan used the Carter pardons to rationalize forgiving FBI agents who broke into the homes and offices of Vietnam War protesters.

George H.W. Bush reveled in his pardon of several Iran-Contra conspirators, including his Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. At a presidential forum a few years later, he said he was "very proud of the fact that I pardoned these people and the Congress couldn’t do a damned thing about it. I loved that. I loved it. I loved it."

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But the pardoner of all pardoners is Bush I’s successor, Clinton I. Bill Clinton was cagey enough to save his truly terrible pardons for the end of his second term, when it was revealed that Hugh Rodham, the brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, had received $400,000 from a cocaine trafficker and a businessman convicted of perjury and mail fraud to lobby his brother-in-law to pardon them. Aghast, the Clintons made brother Hugh give the money back.

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This revelation took a bit of attention, but not the heat, from Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, a businessman who fled to Switzerland to avoid a prison term for making illegal oil deals with Iran while Americans were being held hostage there and for evading more than $48 million in taxes. When the public wondered why Clinton would pardon this character, it was noted there was the million dollars Rich’s wife had given to Democratic causes, including $450,000 to the Clinton Library.

An outraged Congress held hearings on the pardon but the hearings ended on something of a down note for congressmen out to nail Clinton. Lewis Libby, the newly appointed chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was called to testify because he had been Rich’s lawyer from 1985 to 2000.

Libby — the press didn’t call him Scooter then — told the committee he didn’t think Rich was really guilty of the tax and racketeering convictions but agreed Rich might be considered a traitor for fleeing the country and renouncing his American citizenship.

Then, after he conceded he had called Rich to congratulate him two days after becoming Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, a Congressman asked Libby why he would call a traitor to congratulate him on his good fortune in getting the pardon.

"Visibly uncomfortable," wrote Byron York in the conservative National Review, "Libby had no answer."