But Scooter did not request a pardon. So how could the prez pardon someone who hasn’t requested one?
No request is necessary. From the Washington D.C. paper The Hill:
Legal experts say a person does not need to request a pardon to receive one from the president.Margaret Colgate Love, the U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, said: “Historically, most people who have been pardoned have asked to be pardoned, but there have been exceptions.”
Love said President Clinton commuted the sentences of Puerto Rican nationalists without receiving requests.
“I understand there were a number of people who were the beneficiaries of final grants who didn’t ask.”
President Clinton also pardoned former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) for mail fraud even though the ex-lawmaker did not solicit clemency, according to a media report at the time.
Bush wanted to leave Scooter Libby twisting in the wind. What a disgraceful way for him to end to his presidency.