Campaigns getting help from friends cleared by Clinton
SPRINGFIELD -- One of the last things Bill Clinton did as president was wipe out Richard Wilson Riley Jr.'s 1993 felony drug convictions from South Carolina.
Today, Riley's father, a former South Carolina governor and former Clinton education secretary, is in charge of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign there and gave her $1,000.
Also on her donor list is David Herdlinger, a former Arkansas prosecutor and judge convicted of accepting bribes to reduce or drop DUI charges. He, too, was pardoned on President Clinton's final day in office. He gave $1,000.
A Daily Herald review of Bill Clinton's controversial pardons and Hillary Clinton's campaign reports found a handful of people like Riley and Herdlinger supporting her White House bid.
While there's nothing illegal about their support, the circumstances provide a reminder of how the Clintons left the White House: with a flurry of last-minute pardons by the president and public outcry.
In her current campaign, Hillary Clinton has used her tenure in the White House to suggest she's the candidate most ready to be president. As for the pardons, she's previously told reporters she wasn't involved.
Her campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Presidential pardons are often controversial. Aside from Clinton's 11th-hour passes, President George W. Bush raised political ire in July when he threw out I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30-month prison sentence. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of lying to investigators about the Valerie Plame CIA operative leak.
There is a formal Department of Justice process for requesting pardons. That process results in recommendations to the president, who is under no obligation to follow them.
Most of the presidential campaigns didn't respond when asked if they'd institute self-imposed restrictions on the pardon powers if elected.
Republican Mitt Romney, however, said he generally opposes granting executive clemency, pointing out that as governor of Massachusetts he denied all 272 requests he received.
"I believe the power to pardon should be used in only the most narrow of circumstances, when the facts of a particular case are so compelling that the punishment and guilt should be set aside," Romney said in an e-mailed statement.
On the Democratic side, a Barack Obama spokesman said the candidate would require those seeking pardons to register as lobbyists and disclose their activities.
The Daily Herald's check of donor records found other presidential campaigns received support from those Bill Clinton pardoned on his final day in office nearly seven years ago.
Obama received $2,300 in September from John Deutch, who was Bill Clinton's CIA director. Deutch resigned in 1996 amid allegations of mishandling classified information but was spared prosecution by Clinton's pardon.
Deutch also donated $1,000 to Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd's now abandoned presidential bid. And he gave $2,300 to Hillary's Clinton's campaign in March and previously supported her U.S. Senate fund.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, has received $4,600 from former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington III. Symington was initially convicted of federal fraud charges stemming from Phoenix real estate deals. The convictions were later overturned and Clinton's pardon prevented the government from trying him again.
Pardon me
Presidential generosity in giving out irrevocable pardons and other official clemency has varied:
Richard Nixon granted 863 pardons during five years in office.
Jimmy Carter granted 534 in four.
Ronald Reagan granted 393 pardons in eight years.
George H.W. Bush granted just 74 in four years.
Bill Clinton granted 396 pardons in eight years. More than one-third came on his final day in office.
Details of presidential pardons can be found at: www.usdoj.gov/pardon/
Source: U.S. Department of Justice