LAWFUEL – President Bush pardoned 29 criminals, including carjackers and drug dealers, but not I Lewis Libby.
The Justice Department said the president had granted 142 pardons and commuted five sentences since taking office in 2001, which is well below what previous presidents have done.That includes Mr. Bush’s decision in July to commute the sentence of Mr. Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the leak of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative.
Nearly all of those to win pardons this year were small-time crooks who at most were imprisoned for five years. Many of them never served time at all, and instead were fined or put on probation.
President Bush pardoned 29 convicts in all and reduced the prison sentence of one more in an end-of-the-year presidential tradition.
Those pardoned included a man sentenced in 1976 to two years’ probation and a $200 fine for stealing government property; another convicted in 1992 of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and fined $25,000; and another sentenced in 1995 for receiving kickbacks in military procurement contracts.
