Among the individuals pardoned was Charles Thompson Winters from Miami, Fla., who had been found guilty for the conspiracy to export, and exportation, of a military aircraft to a foreign country. Winters was sentenced on February 4, 1949, to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The aircraft was to supply Jews fighting in Israel’s 1948 war for independence.
Although Winters passed away in 1984, the pardon is seen as a gesture to his family and the Jewish people. His actions were in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1939.
Others on the list include James Won Hee Kang, who was sentenced for one year in probation and given a $5,000 fine in 1985 for trafficking counterfeit goods, and Richard Harold Miller, sentenced in 1993 to five years probation and a $10,000 fine for conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The president has legal rights to grant pardons and shorten sentences through the U.S. Constitution. George Bush has granted 191 pardons to date. He also commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney.
Among the most controversial pardons ever granted were the pardons of Richard Nixon by Gerald Ford upon his taking of office soon after Nixon had resigned and Bill Clinton’s pardon at the close of his presidency of Mark Rich, who was guilty of tax evasion and illegal oil deals with Iran.
