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Soon after Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, the former president and I had a brief telephone conversation. I had been downright heated about the pardon, a lot angrier than I had ever been about Monica Lewinsky. Clinton implied that I had things historically backward. Long after the Rich pardon had been forgotten, he said, the Lewinsky scandal would remain a vivid memory. That day is yet to come. The Rich pardon is back. The vehicle for this lingering echo from the year 2001 is the choice of Eric Holder as Barack Obama's attorney general. Holder was Clinton's deputy attorney general...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Some high-profile convicts past and present are among more than 2,000 people asking President George W. Bush to pardon them or commute their prison sentences before he leaves office. Junk-bond king Michael Milken, media mogul Conrad Black and American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh have applied to the Justice Department seeking official forgiveness.

WASHINGTON - On Nov. 24, 2008, President George W. Bush granted pardons to 14 individuals and commutation of sentence to two individuals:

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/November/08-opa-1048.html President George W. Bush Grants Pardons and Commutations WASHINGTON - On Nov. 24, 2008, President George W. Bush granted pardons to 14 individuals and commutation of sentence to two individuals: PARDONS: · Leslie Owen Collier - Charleston, Mo. Offense: Unauthorized use of a registered pesticide, 7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(2)(F) and 136l(b); violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. § 668(a). Sentence: Feb. 2, 1996; Eastern District of Missouri; two years’ probation and $10,000 in restitution. · Milton Kirk Cordes - Rapid City, S.D. Offense: Conspiracy to violate the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President George W. Bush's latest list of pardons does not include some high-profile criminals who still hope the president will grant them clemency in his final weeks in office. On Monday, Bush granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others whose misdeeds included dealing drugs, evading taxes, killing bald eagles or mishandling hazardous waste. The most recent batch, however, did not include any well-known convicts like junk bond dealer Michael Milken, who is seeking a pardon on securities fraud charges, or two politicians convicted of public corruption — former Rep. Randy "Duke"...

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others convicted of misdeeds ranging from drug offenses to tax evasion, from wildlife violations to bank embezzlement, The Associated Press learned Monday. The new round of White House pardons are Bush's first since March and come less than two months before he will end his presidency. The crimes committed by those on the list also include offenses involving hazardous waste, food stamps, and the theft of government property. Bush has been stingy during his time in office about handing out such...

WHEN President Bill Clinton pardoned a billionaire fugitive from justice on his last day in office, even usually loyal Democrats were dismayed. Representative Henry Waxman of California called it “bad precedent” and “an end run around the judicial process.” He said it appeared to set a double standard for the wealthy and powerful. The billionaire was Marc Rich, a commodities trader, and his pardon is a subject of discussion again because Eric Holder, Mr. Clinton’s deputy attorney general at the time[.]

There's a new flap involving Sarah Palin: In honor of Thanksgiving, she pardoned one turkey while other birds met their demise right behind her. Now the former VP hopeful's rep is speaking out to ET about the turkey pardon-gone-wrong! "The [Alaska] governor did not know it was going on behind her," Palin's spokesperson tells ET of the reportedly grisly scene at Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside Wasilla. Cameras captured Palin extending the annual Thanksgiving pardon to one turkey while a farm hand slaughtered the bird's feathered friends in the background. Palin's spokesperson tells ET the bird butchering wasn't going...

(CNSNews.com) – In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is mulling whether to recommend a commutation for the two former Border Patrol agents jailed for more than a decade each for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks. The case is now before the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney Donald Rodgers. The Office of Pardon Attorney works in consultation with the attorney general’s office to assist the president, who has sole power of clemency in federal cases under the Constitution. Ultimately, it is the president’s call regardless of what the Office of Pardon Attorney recommends....

George W Bush is considering issuing pardons for US spies embroiled in allegations of torture just before he leaves the White House. Senior intelligence officers are lobbying the outgoing president to look after the men and women who could face charges for following his orders in the war on terrorism. Many fear that Barack Obama, who has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and put an end to the policy of extraordinary rendition, could launch a legal witch hunt against those who oversaw the policies after he is sworn in on Jan 20. Most vulnerable are US intelligence...

Justice: Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler have been resentenced for the crime of protecting the borders of the United States. Mr. President, you do not have the right to remain silent.Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are 20 months into their sentences for shooting drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who tried to elude the two agents after driving a van near Fabens, Texas, that was found to hold 743 pounds of marijuana. He tried to flee back to Mexico and was shot in the buttocks by the agents who had reason to believe he...

Mr. President, You have done an exceptional job of protecting us for the past 7 years. My wife and I are truly grateful for your fortitude in the face of unceasing opposition from within and without our borders. There is one glaring injustice that remains a stain upon the fabric of our country. United States Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean have been more than sufficiently punished for the accusations of Johnny Sutton and the serial criminal illegal alien drug dealer. They are in conditions far worse than the enemy combatants currently (justifiably) incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. If anything,...

Lest President-elect Barack Obama forget that he will soon hear passionate calls on a wide range of issues, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) today called on the Democrat to pardon imprisoned border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean–a hot-button issue for immigration activists.The agents' case has been a rallying cry for immigration hard-liners like Tancredo, but it has garnered attention from centrists and liberals as well — Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), joined calls for an examination of the case.Ramos and Compean are serving prison sentences for shooting a man near the Texas-Mexico border in 2005....

Please pray for border agents Compean and Ramos. I doubt they'll get pardoned now.

Dear Sarah, I know you're pretty busy with the campaign trail, and there's a plethora of people seeking your time, but I ask for an indulgence of your time. As I write this, US border agents Ramos & Compean are rotting in a Federal prison. Their court verdicts are bogus, the testimony of their accuser tainted, while the federal prosecutor hides a hidden agenda. Radio talk show hosts Gleen Beck, Laura Ingraham and Shawn Hannity (to name a few) have championed their cause, but the current administration refuses to listen to the public's letters/petitions/newly discovered evidence. Sarah, I ask that...

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan. The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village. “Everyone was shocked,” said Sara’s husband, Dilawar, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “These were men who had been sentenced and found guilty by the Supreme Court, walking around freely.” Sara’s case highlights concerns about the close relationship between the Afghan president and men accused of war crimes and human rights abuses....

Return of the exile: Marc Rich at the party hosted by his ex-wife Denise (second from left)   That's RichKeith Dovkants, Evening Standard 11.08.08     Few recognised the avuncular American chuckling with Naomi Campbell at one of the summer's most spectacular parties in St Tropez. Tanned, sporting an unbuttoned cerise silk shirt, he seemed perfectly at ease among the guests aboard the motor yacht Lady Joy where Ivana Trump, Joan Collins and 500 or so others partied to a Moulin Rouge theme. Some may have wondered why certain guests seemed to hold the affable American in such awe....

Thirty-one members of Congress on Wednesday asked President Bush for an "immediate review" of the convictions of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were sentenced in 2006 to lengthy prison terms for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks as he fled back to Mexico. "Should you be unwilling to pardon Agents Ramos and Compean, as some of us have advocated, we ask that you then consider commuting their sentences to time served," the Republican lawmakers said in a letter. "Your intervention in this matter will not only serve to correct this injustice, but also help...

PASCAGOULA -- Brandon Jones was 12 when Adrienne Klasky Graham's ex-husband gunned her down at a busy intersection in Pascagoula, but he remembers it and the effect it had on his community. His sister went to school with one of Adrienne's young sons. People he knew talked about it. "All of us living in Pascagoula in 1989 remember that day," said Jones, now a young attorney representing Pascagoula in the Legislature. "And to know that someone can shoot someone in the plain light of day and walk free less than 20 years later. The governor's action has broken open...

Sent to jail by a judge who said he didn’t believe she had owned up to her involvement in steroids and a check-cashing scheme, track star Marion Jones has now turned to a different kind of judge - President Bush.