Posted on 12/30/2008 9:28:40 AM PST by SmithL
If President Bush had been looking for a textbook case of a federal offender who should never win a presidential pardon, Isaac R. Toussie would fit the bill. Toussie is the sort of amoral swell who contributed to the 2008 mortgage meltdown. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2002 he pleaded guilty to mail fraud in a scam to get Suffolk County, N.Y., to overpay for land.
The New York Times noted, "The name of Isaac Toussie is detested by many working-class people in the New York metropolitan area. In 2001, several hundred of them sued in Federal District Court, accusing Mr. Toussie and his father of masterminding a scheme in which inexperienced or first-time buyers were promised affordable and comfortable suburban houses but instead were sold shoddily built homes in poor neighborhoods and saddled by mortgage payments that shot up surprisingly." According to Newsday, a pardon would clear the way for Toussie - who already served his five-month prison sentence - to win back his real estate license.
And the fact that Toussie's father recently and uncharacteristically donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee would taint any presidential pardon with a pay-to-play stench.
Yet on Dec. 23, as Bush was working on exiting the White House on a high note, came the pardon that never should have happened. It was then followed by a Dec. 24 announcement by Press Secretary Dana Perino that Bush was rescinding Toussie's pardon "based on information that has subsequently come to light."
Credit Bush for taking back a bad executive decision, although some experts assert that cannot be done. If Bush had done nothing, the Toussie story likely would have been buried among stories on retail sales slumps, violence in Gaza and...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The only pardon that really interest me at this time is the Border Agents. Bush should pardon these guys.
And it wasn't to go after corrupt Politicians, break up drug smuggling rings, get gun runners, or jail Illegals for pooping on Federal land. Ramos and Compean aren't the only two BP Agents Sutton has prosecuted persecuted.
Excellent article. I am PRAYING that the two border agents receive a pardon, but every day they sit in jail is just a travesty of justice. And how Bush could give this Toussie miscreant a pardon is simply beyond belief!
I’ve almost given up on Bush granting Compean and Ramos a pardon, since he and his buddy Johnny Sutton seem to be the ones who fought so hard to put them there in the first place. I wonder if 0bama could pardon them when he enters office?
Bush has been a decent president, but his policies on border security have been simply horrific.
I did not mean to echo your thoughts, but started writing, got interrupted, and then finished, only to then see your post!
Anyway, yes, the agents may have a better chance with 0bama than Bush, it seems. Who woulda thought?
No problem :-)
Happens a lot of FR. Great minds think alike.
There will be times I start typing when post #2 is current. By the time I'm done, spell check and editing, my post is #25. And most posts in between will be similar in thought.
Scooter Libby needs a full pardon and an abject apology from this government. Mother Theresa was guilty of more crimes than Libby is.
“Ramos and Compean covered up the questionable shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler. Yes, juries found all three men guilty, but juries had no input into their draconian sentences.”
Did the jurors know the star witness for the prosecution was given immunity and allowed to continue his drug smuggling? The only way Sutton could get those guys was by being unethical.
I think he needs to pardon G. Gordon Liddy as well.
Sutton and Bush are going to ride the border agent incident down. It has tarnished their reputations and will be a blight on Bush’s legacy.
I agree.
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