19 Holiday Pardons, But No Big Names on the List
No high-profile lawbreakers were on President Bush’s holiday pardon list today. But, the president did grant one pardon posthumously to Charles Winters, an American man who broke the law by supplying aircraft to Jews fighting in Israel’s 1948 war of independence.
The pardons of Winters and 18 others were made before Bush left for Camp David for the holidays, the Associated Press reports.
Winters, who was a non-Jewish Miami-area produce exporter, violated the Neutrality Act by supplying converted B-17 “Flying Fortresses” to Israel’s defense forces to use as bombers. The planes are credited with helping turn the war in Israel’s favor.
Reginald Brown, an attorney who worked on the Winters pardon is quoted by AP as saying that Bush’s pardon “rights a historical wrong and honors Charlie’s belief that the creation of the Jewish state was a moral imperative of his time. … Charlie Winters helped shape human history for the better.”
Today’s 19 pardons and one commutation bring Bush’s total to 190 pardons and nine commutations, fewer than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued, AP notes.
