World

Bush Pulls Pardon on Christmas Eve

by polylogue | December 24, 2008 at 08:24 pm

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A day after pardoning a developer who sold shoddy homes to buyers in poor neighbourhoods, President George W. Bush has pulled the pardon. According the New York Times, the White House is claiming that information has appeared and that Bush will no longer be pardoning Isaac Toussie.

Toussie's father donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee in April and also to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) campaign for president. There is some speculation that the White House was concerned about appearances.

According the New York Times, Toussie pled guilty in 2001 to using false documents to obtain mortgages and to mail fraud. He served five months in prison and three years of supervised release. A pardon would have removed the crimes from his record.

The developer, Isaac R. Toussie, who was listed Tuesday as one of the beneficiaries of the president’s constitutional power to wipe away a criminal record, is not being pardoned “based on information that has subsequently come to light,” the White House said late Wednesday afternoon.

The terse White House statement did not elaborate, but officials familiar with the case said that presidential aides — and perhaps President Bush himself — were concerned about appearances, because Mr. Toussie’s father, Robert, donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee last April, for what apparently was his first political contribution. He also donated $2,300 to the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain.

Regardless of how Mr. Toussie is perceived by Republicans in Washington, the name of Isaac Toussie is detested by many working-class people in the New York metropolitan area.