Pardon my being disingenuous, but the man responsible for any illegal activity (legally speaking) gets to pardon whoever he pleases as a sort of farewell gesture on leaving office (a gesture akin to the archer's salute, it seems)? Let's hope Robert Mugabe never gets wind of this.
He can't pardon himself, though I suppose that in theory he could pardon Cheney this morning, then resign at 11am, get Cheney sworn in quickly and be pardoned by Cheney before noon.
After his two clemencies yesterday, members of his staff reported that he wasn't going to be issuing any pardons. According to one conservative jackass, Bush's lack of pardon for Scooter Libby causes Bush to leave office under a cloud, cause, you know, he was the messiah until then.
Point of order: Do commutation of sentences count?
He won't pardon anyone who might be able to rat him out. See Libby, who was Not Pardoned. If he was, he could be compelled to testify, since he would no longer be able to incriminate himself, the 5th amendment protection against such goes by the board.
Matter of fact, I only think he's pardoned one guy. Commuted a few sentences.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 10:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 11:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 11:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 03:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 11:29 am (UTC)Not that he will be leaving office. Ever.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 11:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 11:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 03:24 am (UTC)I'm sure there's a second one. Just can't think of any more right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 02:00 pm (UTC)He won't pardon anyone who might be able to rat him out. See Libby, who was Not Pardoned. If he was, he could be compelled to testify, since he would no longer be able to incriminate himself, the 5th amendment protection against such goes by the board.
Matter of fact, I only think he's pardoned one guy. Commuted a few sentences.