President's constitutional pardon power is very broad. Still, each pardon presumbaly reviewed by WH legal team. Not surprisingly, many pardons perceived as doling out favors & raising questions.
But what did Bush is unforgivable. In this time of economic recession which was sheppareded by mortgage & loans schemes promoted by Bush Adminstration deregulation, who does he pardon?
Meet Isaac Toussie & his family.
A convicted felon involved in mortgage fraud scheme whose father donated $40K to GOP this year alone.
The pardon was for Isaac R. Toussie, a 36-year-old New York developer who pleaded guilty in 2001 to making false statements in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme.
Toussie and his father, also a developer, had previously been accused of conspiring with lenders and others to build and sell substandard homes -- a charge they denied.
According to a senior Bush administration official, the White House learned more about Toussie's case Tuesday night -- only hours after announcing his pardon.
Specifically, the White House learned, according to the official, "additional information about the nature of fraud [Toussie] carried out."
The White House also learned Toussie's father made numerous contributions to leading Republican politicians.
In 2008, Toussie's father donated almost $40,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor.
http://www.cnn.com/...
After media uproar, Bush back down & ordered "additional review" of the pardon before its delivery. Additional? What did the initial review showed? May be Politico will run one of its daily freak shows as it does on Blago scandal? I'm not holding my breath.
Toussie remains hopeful anyway.
Bradford Berenson, Toussie's lawyer, issued a statement saying, "Isaac Toussie is deeply grateful that both the counsel to the president and the president himself found Mr. Toussie's pardon application to have sufficient merit to be granted.