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On this day in 1992, President George H. W. Bush issued pardons for six men. Arguably, these pardons did more to enable future criminal presidencies even than Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon.
The pardons—mainly for perjury, obstruction of justice, and withholding evidence—pertained to the international organized crime known as Iran-Contra.
The administration of Ronald Reagan had lent secret military aid to the Nicaraguan guerrillas known as Contras who sought to overthrow the Sandinista government.
Upon discovering this secret aid, Congress outlawed it, in amendments attached to annual defense appropriations bills and therefore known after their sponsor as the Boland Amendments.
As Edward Boland said, his “provision clearly ends U.S. support for the war in Nicaragua.”
Or, you know, it clearly ended *legal* U.S. support for that war.
The Reagan administration broke this law, sending weapons and materiel to Israel for sale to Iran for cash (and also the release of U.S. hostages); and then ferrying that cash to the Contras.
These actions violated not only the Boland Amendment but the Arms Export Control Act, and also entailed a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Appointed independent counsel to investigate these crimes, Lawrence Walsh tried to discover the truth from 1986 through the end of the Bush administration.
Walsh wanted to try Oliver North for conspiracy, but the Bush administration stymied this effort by refusing to release relevant documents either to defense or prosecution.
North was convicted of obstruction instead; an appeals court threw out the conviction 2-1 because the jury might have been influenced by North’s televised testimony to Congress.
Walsh prosecuted former national security adviser John Poindexter for similar offenses next, obtaining a conviction that was thrown out for identical reasons.
Walsh found himself further frustrated by official refusals to acknowledge the existence of contemporaneous notes and claims never even to have received his requests for such notes.
He got former defense secretary Caspar Weinberg’s notes only in late 1991, and Bush’s diary in November 1992—after the president had lost his reelection bid.
Such delays helped ensure Walsh couldn’t indict Weinberger for obstruction until June 1992.
Walsh filed a further charge in October using evidence from Weinberger’s notes showing that Bush knew about the arms-for-hostages portion of the deal.
Weinberger’s trial would therefore surely have implicated Bush.
But on Christmas Eve, 1992, Bush pardoned Weinberger, preventing a trial and protecting himself from whatever disclosures it might entail.
Bush also pardoned Robert MacFarlane, Elliott Abrams, and three CIA officers for their roles in Iran-Contra.
Walsh—a lifelong Republican—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.”
“The Iran-Contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed with the pardon of Caspar Weinberger,” Walsh noted. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-25-mn-2496-story.html
When pardoning the Iran-Contra criminals, President Bush said, “the common denominator of their motivation—whether their actions were right or wrong—was patriotism.” https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/25/us/pardons-text-president-bush-s-statement-pardon-weinberger-others.html
Bush was prepared to justify “wrong” actions—crimes—if they sprang from what he considered patriotism.
That’s why the Iran-Contra pardons dealt an even more serious blow to U.S. democracy than the pardon of Nixon.
Ford’s pardon of Nixon demonstrated that the president need not worry about prosecution; he was above the law.
Bush’s pardon of Weinberger, MacFarlane, Abrams et al. demonstrated that *anyone* who did crimes for the president need not worry about prosecution; they too would be above the law.
(and yes, the attorney general then was William Barr, who supported the pardons.) https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/684553791/william-barr-supported-pardons-in-an-earlier-d-c-witch-hunt-iran-contra
