Talk of Pardoning Clinton Premature, Bush Says

Responding to the suggestion of a senior Republican senator, President-elect George W. Bush said Monday that he would not pardon President Clinton because Clinton has not been indicted.

Bush added that a pardon under such circumstances “doesn’t make any sense to me.”

But in a coda reminiscent of the language President Ford used when he pardoned President Nixon, Bush said:

“I think it’s time to get all this business behind us. I think it’s time for the president--to allow the president to finish his term and let him move on and enjoy life and become an active participant in the American system. And I think we’ve had enough focus on the past. It’s time to move forward.”

Bush spoke during a picture-taking session with members of Congress. The question of a pardon arose on Sunday, when Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in response to a question that if he were president, he would pardon Clinton regardless of whether he is indicted.

“It’s time to put this to bed,” Hatch 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. And I don’t think there’s a jury in America who is--that is going to convict President Clinton.”

Indeed, there is no certainty of such an indictment--nor is there certainty that Robert W. Ray, the independent counsel who took over the Clinton investigations from Kenneth W. Starr, will not seek Clinton’s indictment after the president leaves office. Ray’s recent move to re-interview Monica S. Lewinsky, the former White House intern with whom he had an affair, revived speculation that the president’s legal troubles would not disappear with his departure from office a week from Saturday.

In any case, Clinton has suggested that he is not interested in a pardon and would not accept it, preferring to fight to establish his innocence.