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Bush Protects Clinton in JW¹s Pardon Probe During his presidential campaign, George W. Bush promised to give the Oval Office a "good scrubbing," making reference to the sleazy and underhanded behavior of his predecessor, Bill Clinton. So why is the President now trying to shield Clinton from Judicial Watch¹s attempts to hold the former president accountable? Case in point, Bill Clinton’s corrupt "midnight pardons." On his last day in office, Clinton bypassed the standard legal process and granted pardons to 177 criminals for their transgressions. Included on that list was the infamous Marc Rich, a man who had been on the government’s "fugitive list" and who allegedly bought his pardon through major donations by his ex-wife Denise Rich to the Democratic Party and Clinton¹s Presidential Library. This last second attempt by Clinton to trample the rule of law, not to mention the questionable biographies of the pardonees, caught the immediate attention of Judicial Watch. JW filed Freedom of Information Act requests to gain access to records concerning Clinton’s pardons. Then, when stonewalled by the Bush Justice Department, JW was forced to file suit. Now, in an unprecedented extension of presidential power, the Bush Administration is trying to keep secret the story behind Bill Clinton’s pardons. The President’s lawyers are claiming that executive privilege extends not only to conversations with the President, but also to other government officials outside The White House who never speak to the President. This privilege also includes, according to the President¹s lawyers, government papers the President has never even seen. "This is a bad faith argument," JW President Tom Fitton said in an interview with the Washington Post. "During the Clinton years, the courts said that executive privilege does not exist outside The White House." Judicial Watch will continue to push for the release of these documents and will never cease its efforts to bring the Clintons to justice. Bill O’Reilly and others have praised JW for its actions and condemned the Bush administrations cover-up.
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