WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush took the extraordinary step Wednesday of revoking a pardon he issued 24 hours earlier for a politically connected Brooklyn real estate developer convicted of defrauding hundreds of low-income homebuyers after it was revealed that the request did not come through the usual route and that a relative had contributed to the Republican Party.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said she knew of no other time a presidential pardon had been reversed.
On Tuesday, Bush pardoned 19 people, including Isaac Robert Toussie, who had been convicted of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Stories in the New York Daily News and Newsday said that Toussie’s father, Robert, had donated $28,500 to the national Republican Party in April. It was his first political donation and came months before Toussie’s pardon petition, which did not go through the usual review process in the Justice Department.
Toussie did not meet Justice Department guidelines for a pardon.
Perino said the reversal was “based on information that has subsequently come to light,” including the extent and nature of his prior criminal offenses. She also said that neither the White House counsel’s office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie’s father that “might create an appearance of impropriety.”
“Given that,” she said, “this was the prudent thing to do.”
