Scott Horton has a short piece at Harpers providing some historical perspective on the use of presidential pardons to avoid the prosecution of presidential administrations and how one New York congressman is hoping to prevent this obstruction of justice.
The story begins in 1992, when then President George H.W. Bush issued pardons to six of his Administration's officials, including his defense secretary, to prevent their prosecution for crimes committed while engaged in the Iran Contra affair. As Horton points out, the lame duck Congress, the incoming Democrats, and the just elected Bill Clinton team were so busy planning their legislative agenda, they looked the other way.
Flash to 2008. The 110th Congress is now wrapping things up. The 111th Congress is about to assume office, and the Obama Administration is busy nominating members and fashioning an economic plan. Rumors that President George W. Bush is set to announce broad blanket pardons to classes of individuals that have engaged in inarguably illegal activities (namely, illegal surveillance and torture), have prompted Rep. Jerrold Nadler to introduce House Resolution 1531. That bill anticipates and condemns such a blanket pardon. The findings of the measure:
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the granting of preemptive pardons by the President to senior officials of his administration for acts they may have taken in the course of their official duties is a dangerous abuse of the pardon power;
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the President should not grant preemptive pardons to senior officials in his administration for acts they may have taken in the course of their official duties;
(3) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that James Madison was correct in his observation that ‘‘[i]f the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds [to] believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty’’;
(4) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that a special investigative commission, or a Select Committee be tasked with investigating possible illegal activities by senior officials of the administration of President George W. Bush, including, if necessary, any abuse of the President’s pardon power; and
(5) the next Attorney General of the United States appoint an independent counsel to investigate, and, where appropriate, prosecute illegal acts by senior officials of the administration of President George W. Bush.
You can read the whole resolution here. You can contact your representative to register your support for Nadler's measure here.
Comments
Funny how you skip over Clinton's last minute pardons and the nominee for AG and HIS role in pardoning Puerto Rican TERRORISTS and fugitives from justice. Where was the Nadler then? Probably eating a 24" pizza.
Bush SHOULD pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
If he pardons anyone involved in the "illegal surveillance", the SAME surveillance the incoming President voted FOR, so what? And who said it was illegal? Has there been any convictions or even CHARGES placed?
Torture? Funny how those like you want to continue to propose this lie and refuse to condemn those who are quick to slice off the heads of innocents and walk into a market with the sole intent of murdering innocent women and children.
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The left still wants revenge for the impeachment of Caligula the rapist.
D.
your living in a one party system.. they all are fascists and impeachable...Bush the free traders predecessor Bill clinton signed nafta gatt and the wto.. a real representative of the working man .. what a fraud
Hmmmmm... Bush murders 4000 of our boys (tricked 'em to Iraq by knowingly lying to them), In the process kills 250,000+ Iraqis-turns a nation into rubble
He has embezzled Billions of taxpayer dollars, shot up the deficit by trillion, lied to Congress, tried to gut the Constitution-and Im sure he has his own bag of 'Vince Foster' skeletons-and ......Bill Clinton.... got a little on the side. Anyone else here think theyre in the same ballpark? PLANET?
What kind of idiot are you , DRH?
Bush and gang should hang for treason.
end of discussion.
Left, center or right-dont matter to me
Question: can a Congressional resolution, or even an act of Congress, prevent a presidential pardon from having effect? I don't think so. We need a constitutional amendment to limit the presidential pardon power. It would go something like this:
"The power of the President to grant pardons and reprieves for offenses against the United States shall not extend to offenses committed, under color of the performance of official duties, by the President, the Vice President, or the head of any Executive Branch Department, or by any person personally nominated or appointed to his or her position by one of the aforementioned officials."
The new Congress should pass such an amendment and submit it to the States as soon as possible. Too bad there is not enough time to enact such an amendment before January 20. Of course, the amendment process was made time-consuming on purpose, but this should have been enacted after George H. W. Bush's Christmas pardons.
i agree, hang bush and his gang, but hang that scumbag clinton next to him for pardoning junk bond salesmen who stole from retired people!
You're out of order!! The whole trial is out of order!!
By God he'd better not pardon that traitor spy Pollard!!!!!
Clinton looked the other way? That's it? How about the Clinton pardons of cocaine dealers for bribes to Hillary's two brothers? George W. Bush, the most liberal president of all time! Liberal with my tax money, liberal with the truth, liberal with sending troops overseas, liberal with my civil rights.
And now progressives want to disown it, but it is them.
I grew up in the Democratic party and no longer belong to either party because I am awake.
Both parties are corrupt to the core.
You have no credibility when you cover half the story. With serious people that care about more than their crappy team winning.
This is real life.
Both parties are corrupt to the core! And they are robbing and killing us off.
And you still chant "Taste great"
and wait to hear back "Less Filling".
There is a special kind of moral filth that attaches to the arrogance of the left. One of them is to gleefully anticipate the bad motives or the bad actions of those they hate, and they especially harp on actions and motives already demonstrated by their own leadership in previous administrations. It's called projection. Look it up.
Mike Collins:KUDOS MIKE GREAT POST!! Glad to see someone is awake out there and hasn't been DUPED into this two-party line of BULLS**T.
I certainly agree with those who say the whole system is corrupt. The only way to change it is to abolish it and begin anew as proposed by Jefferson. But how to go about it? Maybe after Emmanuel's "new draft" proposal is put in place to "help shape the hearts and minds of our young people" the last remaining drop of hope will be completely bled out. M
It will never happen Obama has stated he will not allow any prosecutions of the former party. Bush didn't either. They protect their own. After all it is one party whether we choose to believe it or not.
As much as I despise Bush and nearly everything he has done this is one instance where I have to take his side. You see I am a strict constitutionalist. I believe in the US Constitution-our Constitution! And it clearly states that the President has the power to pardon -Anybody for any reason he sees fit. People you can't demand for 8 years to have bush's head on a platter for ignoring the Constitution (which he clearly did) and then say its OK to change it when you don't like the outcome.
MCD, "Bush murders 4000 of our boys"
You are a sphincter.
This article has been featured at THEWEEK.com as Best Opinion - we really enjoyed your take on the recent Bush pardons
Where was Nadler when his buddy Clinton was pardoning all sorts of criminal filth? HYPOCRITE!
A couple comments:
1. There were Clinton pardons that were shameless.
2. What's up with some of you who cannot, under any circumstances, say it would be wrong for Pres. Bush to give pardons to lawbreakers?
3. You just demonstrate absolute zero objectivity and credibility when the only point you can make is: "oh yeah, well Clinton did it too"
4. I reject the equivalence of tax evasion (e.g. Marc Rich) with violating the Constitution of the United States (David Addington, John Yoo, et al.).
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