George W. Bush wrote about the eleventh-hour pardon pressure in his memoir Decision Points: "One of the biggest surprises of my presidency was the flood of pardon requests at the end. I could not believe the number of people who pulled me aside to suggest that a friend..." (cont)

"...or former colleague deserved a pardon. At first I was frustrated. Then I was disgusted. I came to see massive injustice in the system. If you had connections to the president, you could insert your case into the last-minute frenzy." (cont)

"Otherwise, you had to wait for the Justice Department to conduct a review and make recommendation. In my final weeks in office, I resolved that I would not pardon anyone who went outside the formal channels.”

(Trump has adopted almost the opposite approach re: formal channels)