Bush flooded by clemency bids

WASHINGTON — Felons are asking President Bush for pardons and commutations at historic levels as he nears his final months in office, a time when many other presidents have granted a flurry of clemency requests.

Among the petitioners is Michael Milken, the billionaire former junk-bond king-turned-philanthropist, who is seeking a pardon for his 1990 conviction for securities fraud, the Justice Department said. Milken sought a pardon eight years ago from President Clinton, and he submitted a new petition in June.

In addition, prominent federal inmates are asking Bush to commute their sentences. Among them are Randy Cunningham, the former Republican congressman from California; Edwin W. Edwards, a former Democratic governor of Louisiana; John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban; and Marion Jones, the former Olympic sprinter.

The requests are adding to a backlog of nearly 2,300 pending petitions, most from "ordinary people who committed garden-variety crimes," said Margaret Colgate Love, a clemency lawyer.

Love, who was the U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, said the backlog was overwhelming the vetting system, meaning that many petitions might not reach Bush's desk before he leaves office.

A Justice Department office with about half-a-dozen officials reviews petitions and recommends whether requests should be granted, although presidents are free to disregard its views. Under the Constitution, Bush can issue a commutation, which reduces a sentence, or a pardon, which forgives an offense and erases the criminal record, to anyone.

But even if a felon's petition reaches the Oval Office, legal specialists said that most of those seeking mercy from Bush should expect to be disappointed.

The Bush administration took office amid heavy criticism of Clinton's last-minute pardons, most notably to Marc Rich, the fugitive financier whose ex-wife had donated to Clinton's presidential library.

Against that backdrop, Bush has made very little use of his clemency powers, granting just 44 pardons and two commutations. By comparison, over eight years in office, President Reagan granted clemency 409 times and Clinton 459 times. More than half of Clinton's grants came in his final three months.

As the administration wrestles with the cascade of petitions, some lawyers and law professors are raising a related issue: whether Bush will grant pre-emptive pardons to officials involved in controversial counterterrorism programs.

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policymakers involved in programs that administration lawyers said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.