A U.S. attorney is gearing up a criminal investigation that faces long odds that it can produce any indictments. And at the center of it all, the former president is stonewalling. The criminal investigation, led by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of New York, reportedly focuses on whether inducements were illegally offered for presidential clemency. The strongest argument for such an inquiry is simply that so many of Mr. Clinton's beneficiaries seem undeserving. There's a danger that in looking prosecutors will overreach, bringing criminal law into the political process.
Congressional inquiries raise different questions.
Neither Mr. Burton nor Sen. Arlen Specter comes to this with a reputation for impartiality that might lend credibility to his fact-finding. The Constitution grants unlimited and unreviewable pardon powers to the president, and that's a good thing, Mr. Clinton's abuses notwithstanding. It would be too bad if President Bush and his successors were made chary of using the power to remedy injustices. As he has before, in other words, Mr. Clinton has presented the nation with a mess and no obvious way to clean it up. At this point he would do the country and himself a great favor by releasing all documents concerning the pardons, disclosing all donors to Clinton causes and explaining why he favored the swindler A. Glenn Braswell, the drug trafficker Carlos Vignali and the rest.