"[W]e’ve got a long tradition in this country of people in power not using the criminal justice system to exact political revenge," spokesman Josh Earnest says. "In fact, we go to great lengths to insulate our criminal justice system from partisan politics."
When Obama took office, many leftists wanted to see George W. Bush and Dick Cheney prosecuted for what they called "war crimes," because of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques to question terrorists. But President Obama appeared reluctant to prosecute career law and intelligence officials in the Bush administration, citing in 2009 "a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards."
During a press conference, Earnest was reluctant to discuss potential pardons, insisting that it was improper to discuss them in advance. He did not rule out a potential pardon for Clinton but reminded reporters of Obama’s discussion of pardons in August.
When asked to reflect on his decision to commute the sentences of thousands of drug offenders, Obama indicated that he would not issue last-minute political pardons before leaving office. Any presidential pardons, he explained, would go through a rigorous legal process to avoid looking political.
"It’s going to be reviewed by the pardon attorney, it will be reviewed by my White House counsel, and I’m going to, as best as I can, make these decisions based on the merits, as opposed to political considerations," Obama said during a press conference.