GOP Sen. Hatch Says Bush Should Pardon Clinton in Lewinsky Matter
A senior Republican senator said Sunday that President-elect George W. Bush should pardon President Clinton, who faces the possibility of being indicted on matters stemming from his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.
“I would pardon him,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah said on “Fox News Sunday.” “ . . . It’s time to let President Clinton fade into whatever he’s going to fade into, and I just don’t see keeping it alive any longer,” the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee added. “I don’t think there’s a jury in America that is going to convict President Clinton.”
The independent counsel has presented evidence to a federal grand jury in Washington largely on matters considered by Congress during the 1998 impeachment that emerged from a sex-and-lies scandal involving Clinton and Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
In a December interview with CBS News, Clinton said he did not believe he should be charged. “If that’s what they want, I’ll be happy to stand and fight,” he said then.
But not all Republicans were seeking a pardon for Clinton. Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition” that it was premature to advocate such action because Clinton had not been charged with any crime.
“I don’t know what [Bush] would be pardoning him for,” McCain said.
A president can pardon someone even if no charges have been made.
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