Before leaving office, President Bush rejected a request for a pardon from Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the disgraced former congressman.
But Cunningham had at least one supporter: His mother.
Karl Rove, testifying in July about the U.S. attorney firing scandal, said:
After Cunningham went away, his mother, who I guess is in her 90s, or was then in her 90s or late 80s, lived in Seguin, Texas, and took to writing letters to me at the White House, asking the President to intercede on behalf of her son.
Bush didn’t pardon Cunningham, who’s serving an eight-year prison term.