wisdom-The "ap" -expunges-Iran-Contra-pardons- tries to make light of Attorney General (to be) W Barr's-record
. . . .
A president facing a major scandal, just as the highest-profile trial is about to begin, pardons the indicted or convicted officials around him to effectively stop the investigation that’s closing in on his own illegal conduct.
NYT: Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair
Lame duck President George Bush Sr. gave a Christmas present to Iran/Contra co-conspirators like Caspar Weinberger–and to himself (New York Times, 12/25/92).
...Trump soon? We’ll see. But this actually describes what President George H.W. Bush did in 1992.
The Iran/Contra scandal revealed, among other things, that the Reagan/Bush White House had secretly sold missiles to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon, using the proceeds to fund right-wing forces fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government in violation of US law.
On Christmas Eve 1992, just as the indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was about to face trial, Bush pardoned him and five others, including former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane.
The New York Times (12/25/92) reported this as “Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Averting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails ‘Cover-Up.'”
The attorney general for Bush who approved the pardons, William Barr, is now being nominated for the same position by Trump. Is this background relevant? Though current news columns are rife with speculation that Trump might likewise protect himself by pardoning his indicted or convicted associates, the dominant US news wire service doesn’t seem to think so.
AP:
Barr as Attorney General: Old Job, Very Different Washington
AP (1/14/19) describes Attorney General-nominee William Barr as “principled, smart and strong-willed”–not to mention a good person to have as your friend if you’re a Justice Department reporter.
In “Barr as Attorney General: Old Job, Very Different Washington” (1/14/19),
Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker made no mention whatsoever of the Iran/Contra pardons. Rather than seriously examine the trajectory of presidential power and accountability, Tucker framed the story, as the headline indicates, as a stark contrast between the gentlemanly Bush and the “twice-divorced” Trump.
Serving Trump, who, like Bush,
faces intensifying investigations from the department Barr would lead, is (**) likely to compare with his tenure under President George H.W. Bush.
The false implication is that Bush did not himself face intensifying investigations from Lawrence Walsh, who operated out of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel.
He did, & was going to be involved in the scandal, dating back from as far before his vice- presidency,
when he ran the CIA, with little to no oversight
The comparison is compounded by Tucker describing Trump as
“breaking with the practice of shielding law enforcement from
political influence”**
and ousting Attorney General Jeff Sessions for
“not protecting him in the Russia investigation”
This may be misleading because it is not as if Barr didn’t have direct experience in the first Bush administration with imposing
political
influence on law enforcement to protect a
president from investigations.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/16/triumph-conventional-wisdom-ap-expunges-irancontra-pardons-barrs-record
Jan 28, 2019 - 05:22pm PT
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