It’s Christmas time in the last year of a Bush presidency. That means it is Pardon Season. Let us travel back in time to Christmas Eve, 1992. The president is George Herbert Walker Bush, the father of the present occupant of the White House. He has been voted out of office and is going to spend one last holiday at Camp David. Before he leaves town, though, he has a little surprise for everyone. Perhaps it is not the gift we expected.

Six years after the arms-for-hostages scandal began to cast a shadow that would darken two Administrations, President Bush today granted full pardons to six former officials in Ronald Reagan’s Administration, including former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.

Mr. Weinberger was scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 5 on charges that he lied to Congress about his knowledge of the arms sales to Iran and efforts by other countries to help underwrite the Nicaraguan rebels, a case that was expected to focus on Mr. Weinberger’s private notes that contain references to Mr. Bush’s endorsement of the secret shipments to Iran.

In one remaining facet of the inquiry, the independent prosecutor, Lawrence E. Walsh, plans to review a 1986 campaign diary kept by Mr. Bush. Mr. Walsh has characterized the President’s failure to turn over the diary until now as misconduct.

Decapitated Walsh Efforts

But in a single stroke, Mr. Bush swept away one conviction, three guilty pleas and two pending cases, virtually decapitating what was left of Mr. Walsh’s effort, which began in 1986. Mr. Bush’s decision was announced by the White House in a printed statement after the President left for Camp David, where he will spend the Christmas holiday.

Mr. Walsh bitterly condemned the President’s action, charging that “the Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed.”

Mr. Walsh directed his heaviest fire at Mr. Bush over the pardon of Mr. Weinberger, whose trial would have given the prosecutor a last chance to explore the role in the affair of senior Reagan officials, including Mr. Bush’s actions as Vice President.

‘Evidence of Conspiracy’

Mr. Walsh hinted that Mr. Bush’s pardon of Mr. Weinberger and the President’s own role in the affair could be related. For the first time, he
charged that Mr. Weinberger’s notes about the secret decision to sell arms to Iran, a central piece of evidence in the case against the former Pentagon chief, included “evidence of a conspiracy among the highest ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public.”

The prosecutor charged that Mr. Weinberger’s efforts to hide his notes may have “forestalled impeachment proceedings against President Reagan” and formed part of a pattern of “deception and obstruction.” On Dec. 11, Mr. Walsh said he discovered “misconduct” in Mr. Bush’s failure to turn over what the prosecutor said were the President’s own “highly relevant contemporaneous notes, despite repeated requests for such documents.”

The notes, in the form of a campaign diary that Mr. Bush compiled after the elections in November 1986, are in the process of being turned over to Mr. Walsh, who said, “In light of President Bush’s own misconduct, we are gravely concerned about his decision to pardon others who lied to Congress and obstructed official investigations.”

In an interview on the “McNeil-Lehrer Newshour” tonight, Mr. Walsh said for the first time that Mr. Bush was a subject of his investigation. The term “subject,” as it has been used by Mr. Walsh’s prosecutors, is broadly defined as someone involved in events under scrutiny, but who falls short of being a target, or a person likely to be charged with a crime. In the inquiry into the entire Iran-contra affair, a number of Government officials have been identified as subjects who were never charged with wrongdoing.

The presidential pardon is absolute. The only limitation is that it does not apply to the impeachment procedure. Therefore, even though what Poppy did was a transparent obstruction of justice, it wasn’t against the law. This is an actual example of ‘when the president does it, it’s not illegal.’

There are four people that are in dire need of a presidential pardon. They are chief-of-staff Josh Bolten, former presidential legal counsel Harriet Miers, former deputy chief-of-staff Karl Rove, and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Miers and Bolten are currently defying congressional subpoenas, using legal arguments that will not be upheld by an Obama administration. Gonzales is rumored to be under grand jury investigation by a DOJ special counsel, and that grand jury will also be interested in the involvement of Karl Rove.

If Bush does not pardon all of these folks, they will face certain legal jeopardy. Yet, none of them have been charged with anything, yet. That means that Bush would have to provide a preemptive pardon, and accepting a pardon is historically understood to be an admission of guilt. If Bush’s follows in his father’s footsteps, he will wait until we are all curled up in front of the Christmas Eve fire drinking our egg nog and singing carols, before he lays out these pardons and commits one final insult to our system of justice.