Bush Will
Issue a Mass
Pardon
By Brent
Budowsky
27/07/08 "Smirking
Chimp"
-- - Jul 26
2008 ---
Before
leaving
office
George W.
Bush will
issue a mass
pardon, the
largest
collection
of
presidential
pardons in
American
history.
Bush will
pardon
himself,
Vice
President
Cheney, and
a long list
of officials
involved in
torture,
eavesdropping,
destruction
of evidence,
the CIA leak
case and a
range of
potential
crimes.
As George
Bush signs
the pardons
and boards
the
helicopter
to depart
Washington
as his
presidency
finally
ends, even
then, he and
those
pardoned
will worry
about the
statute of
limitations.
There is an
important
point to
this, often
not
recognized
in official
Washington
during the
Bush years,
where the
unthinkable
becomes a
way of life,
and acts
have been
done that
have never
been done by
an American
president or
administration.
Torture
violates
international
law,
domestic
law,
statutory
law,
customary
law,
American
law,
European law
— the list
goes on.
Eavesdropping
without
court order
violates a
statute,
FISA, that
includes
severe
criminal
penalties.
If the
courts
ultimately
conclude
that these
laws were
broken, as I
predict they
ultimately
will,
considering
the number
of
individual
violations,
and the
penalties
for each
violation,
the
potential
sentencing
liability
for anyone
convicted
would be
huge.
On the
destruction
of evidence,
disappearing
e-mails,
claims of
executive
privilege
that I
predict will
be clearly
rejected by
the Supreme
Court after
Bush has
departed,
arguably
false
testimony to
Congress,
attempts to
cover up
actions that
violate the
law, the
list, again,
goes on.
There will
be a huge
legal debate
about the
ability of a
president to
issue
pardons so
sweeping in
their
language
that they
cover all
these
potential
areas of
legal
liability,
and very
possibly, it
cannot be
done.
As we
approach the
election,
leaks will
increase as
they did
prior to the
2006
election,
from within
the
administration,
about these
matters and
others.
Legal
scholars
will debate
the legality
of a mass
pardon.
Congress
should
pursue every
pending and
possible
legal
challenge to
claims of
executive
privilege so
completely
untenable
under the
law that
even some
conservative
Supreme
Court
justices
will refuse
to uphold
them, as
conservative
justices
joined
liberals
ruling
against
Richard M.
Nixon.
I predict a
series of
historic
Supreme
Court cases
that will
defeat most
of the Bush
executive
privilege
claims and
permanently
end attempts
for royalist
interpretations
of the law
that the
Bush years
embody.
The fact
that Bush
attempted to
seize power
in ways that
negate the
legislative
and judicial
branches of
government,
and the fact
that
Congress was
not heroic
in defending
its rightful
place in the
separation
of powers,
do not
change the
fact that
what is
illegal is
illegal.
This is not
merely a
liberal
issue. There
are many
authentic
conservatives,
true Barry
Goldwater
Republicans,
genuine
libertarians,
honorable
strict
constructionist
conservative
jurists and
legal
scholars who
agree
entirely
that on
occasions
George Bush
has
attempted
and at times
executed
seizures of
executive
power that
violate the
American
Constitution
and American
statutes.
Get ready
for mass
pardons.
Get ready
for the
long-held
precedents
of American
law to be
ultimately
if belatedly
upheld as
spurious
claims of
executive
privilege,
to be be
rejected
even by some
conservative
justices of
the Supreme
Court.
Get ready
for a
long-overdue
debate that
has barely
begun and
will be
triggered by
the mass
pardons that
will be the
last sorry
act of the
presidency
of George W.
Bush.
Because it
will be
legally
almost
impossible
to issue
mass pardons
so sweeping
and
universal
they would
cover every
possible
offense, get
ready for
the words
"statute of
limitations"
to enter our
public
dialogue by
January of
2009 as a
new
president
assumes
office and
the Bush
years,
finally, are
over.
Brent
Budowsky
served as
Legislative
Assistant to
U.S. Senator
Lloyd
Bentsen,
responsible
for commerce
and
intelligence
matters,
including
one of the
core
drafters of
the CIA
Identities
Law. Served
as
Legislative
Director to
Congressman
Bill
Alexander,
then Chief
Deputy Whip,
House of
Representatives.
Currently a
member of
the
International
Advisory
Council of
the
Intelligence
Summit. Left
goverment in
1990 for
marketing
and public
affairs
business
including
major
corporate
entertainment
and talent
management.
He can be
reached at
brentbbi@webtv.net
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/16095
|
