When George W. Bush boarded the former Air Force One to fly home to Texas yesterday, he left behind a lot of disappointed felons, not to mention their lawyers.
Among his last official acts on Monday, Bush commuted the sentences of two former Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler. The men, Jose A. Compean and Ignacio Ramos, both of El Paso, TX, are expected to be freed within two months, cutting short prison terms that had been slated to run at least eight more years.
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But the former president did not grant clemency to any better-known political figures or government officials who could still face liability over administration policies, as many (including Muckety) had anticipated.
“I was shocked when I heard this was the only [pardon],” Margaret Colgate Love, a former Justice Department pardon lawyer who represented about 20 people seeking clemency, told the New York Times.
She was not alone. Former Vice President Dick Cheney told the Weekly Standard that he had lobbied hard for clemency for his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom he described as “the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice.”
“Obviously, I disagree with President Bush’s decision,” Cheney told the conservative magazine.
The commutations for Compean and Ramos bring Bush’s total number of pardons and commutations to 200, the fewest of any two-term president in modern times. Bill Clinton, after all, had granted clemency to billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, among dozens of others, and Gerald Ford to Richard Nixon.
At the very least, many had expected Bush to grant clemency at least to Libby, and to financier Michael R. Milken. He was also said to have weighed action to shield former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other officials who might face future legal liability in connection with their roles in the war on terror.
Other politically-connected felons who may have hoped for eleventh-hour reprieves were former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and former GOP congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
Two years ago, Bush had expressed personal interest in the border patrol case, telling a Texas TV station that he planned to review the facts to see if a pardon was warranted. “I just want people to take a sober look at the case,” he said then, adding that “Border Patrol and law enforcement have no stronger supporter than me.”
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