No Pardons
Dear Mr. President:
Please pledge that you will not pardon anyone who has worked or is currently working in your Administration who is convicted of a crime in connection with the disclosure of Valarie Wilson’s identity as a CIA operative, or in any related matter.
Your handling of the Valerie Wilson matter already demonstrates lowered standards of ethical and legal behavior, and the American people are depending on you to take a leadership role in restoring this country to it’s true ideals.
You initially promised that any member of your staff who leaked the identity of Mrs. Wilson would be terminated. On July 18, 2005, you changed that threshold, requiring that staff members will only be terminated if an actual crime has been committed. Moreover, you have refused to respond to a request by Congressman John Conyers and 90 other Members of Congress that you ask Karl Rove, one of your top advisors, to either disclose his role in the outing of Mrs. Wilson or resign and, indeed, have allowed him to remain on your staff without doing so.
On repeated occasions, you have permitted your staff to mislead and/or lie to the American people in connection with this matter without disciplinary consequences. For several years, your press secretary, Scott McClellan, assured the American people that neither Mr. Rove, I. Lewis Libby, nor Elliot Abrams were involved in the leak.
Just this past month, however, we learned that both Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby were sources for Mrs. Wilson’s identity. Mr. McClellan remains undisciplined for his statements. I am therefore concerned that these low ethical standards foreshadow future actions on your part that will allow individuals responsible for this breach of national security to evade accountability.
Outing an intelligence operative is one of the most serious offenses under our laws, as it endangers not only the operative, her family, and her employer, but jeopardizes other operatives and intelligence assets, as well as our nation’s security. To reveal an operative’s identity during a time of war for purposes of a political vendetta is not only dangerous and illegal, but it reveals a basic disregard for the security of our nation.
In connection with the drafting of our Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote, the “power of pardoning in the President has . . . been only contested in relations to the crime of treason.”
I hope you agree with Mr. Hamilton that there is no justification for using pardon powers in any way to insulate those who would commit such acts of disloyalty against our nation.
Please help restore our faith in our government. Make a “No Pardons” pledge today.
Sincerely,
Patricia Aro
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