Conrad Black seeks pardon. Clinton would have given him a medal!

Conrad Black seeks pardon from President Bush Posted: November 20, 2008, 3:19 PM by Karen Hawthorne World, Crime, Canada, Conrad Black

 

By Katie Rook, National Post

Conrad Black is seeking clemency from George W. Bush before the U.S. president’s tenure in the White House ends in January.

The Office of the Pardon Attorney in Washington has received an application from the former press baron requesting that his 6 1/2 year conviction for wire fraud be commuted, Department of Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney confirmed in an email.

Lord Black began serving his sentence in a minimum security prison in Florida in March.

He has submitted legal bills related to work on a presidential pardon to his former company, Sun-Times Media Group, Inc., sources confirmed Thursday.

The U.S. Constitution grants the president the right to issue “reprieves and pardons” that can erase a conviction or reduce or eliminate a prison sentence. The president can also reduce or eliminate fines.

The U.S. Justice Department says Bush has received more than 2,000 requests for pardon.

Known among some of the other 2,000 inmates at the Coleman facility as the “billionaire lord,” the Montreal-born businessman has made acquaintances and is said to be adjusting to prison life.

His job in the prison library, where he has access to legal books and major U. S. daily newspapers, affords him limited access to a computer, but no Internet and severely restricted e-mail access, which the prison monitors.

Months ago, a grassroots attempt to organize a pardon campaign for Lord Black, who is appealing his conviction on three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice for defrauding shareholders of Hollinger Inc., appeared to have been stonewalled. “The attorneys in his camp are reticent. Nobody has made any effort or given any thought to doing this,” said a Chicago-based official who met with Lord Black’s legal team.

The plan was to present a dossier of information to John Dennis Hastert, Republican member of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, the longest-serving Republican Speaker in U. S. history.

The package was to include Lord Black’s books on former presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, transcripts of the December, 2007, sentencing hearing, as well as 100 letters written in support of the convicted Canadian businessman, which were filed with trial Judge Amy St. Eve.

According to the Chicago based official who asked not to be named, contact with Mr. Hastert would be facilitated through business associates, including the Goeken Group Corp., a Naperville, Ill.-based lighting technology and health care information company where Mr. Hastert was hired in March as a strategic advisor.

Ultimately, the goal was to convince Mr. Hastert, who has close ties to U. S. President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, to personally deliver the package to the White House and make a plea on behalf of Lord Black. By that time, an official pardon application should have been filed with the Pardon Attorney’s office at the Department of Justice by Lord Black’s lawyers.

However, a source in Lord Black’s camp said, “nothing would be done before the appeal,” which is scheduled to be heard June 5 by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

“There are a lot of people in positions that could help. I don’t think there’s going to be a pardon Conrad Black committee,” said the insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I think if anything happens, it’s going to be very quiet.”

Securing a presidential pardon — or any kind of executive clemency — will be a major challenge, despite Lord Black’s political connections in conservative circles.

For one, President Bush has been the stingiest in modern times when exercising his absolute power to pardon or commute the sentence of any felon.

Since assuming power in 2001, President Bush has issued 142 pardons to people who have served entire prison terms, and five sentence commutations, including former White House aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice last year.

Compare that with 456 pardons and commutations for former president Bill Clinton during his two terms in office during the 1990s, and George H. W. Bush, who granted 75 full pardons and three commutations during his one-term as president in 1989 to 1993.

“This president has been very principled and sparing in his pardons,” explained Margaret Colgate-Love, a former Department of Justice Pardon Attorney, responsible for recommending presidential pardons to the White House.

“He has no track record that would lead anybody to expect that [Bush] would do something like that for Lord Black,” she said.

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