It was a Christmas Eve surprise and as controversial as they come. On December 24, 1992, with less than

a month left in his presidency, George H. W. Bush decided he would wipe the slate clean

on the Iran Contra affair, a scandal that had hung over two administrations, his and that

of his predecessor Ronald Reagan for the past six years. Bush that day pardon Casper Weinberger,

Reagan's defense secretary and five others implicated in the scandal. In a single stroke,

wrote The New York Times, Mr. Bush swept away one conviction, three guilty pleas, and two pending

cases virtually decapitating what was left of the investigation by Independent Council Lawrence

Walsh. Walsh was beside himself, immediately issuing a statement that the Bush pardons were

one more piece of an Iran Contra cover up. Bush's pardon that day, 26 years ago,

is newly relevant because of somebody who turns out to have been a pivotal figure in making them

happen. William Barr, then the Attorney General, and now Donald Trump's pick to assume that office

again. When the Times reported on the Iran Contra pardons, they wrote that Bush had consulted with

Barr about them. In fact, as Barr later revealed in an oral history interview, he was a prime mover

behind the pardons. It convinced that Walsh's targets had been unjustly treated. Barr said,

I went over and told the president, I thought he should not only pardon Casper Weinberger,

but while he was at it, he should pardon about five others. Why was Barr so determined to arrange

those pardons? And what might that tell us about how he would approach the issue today?

If questions came up about pardons for defendants in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation,

that's our subject on this episode of Barry Treasure.

The attention still tells me that's true, but the fact is in the evidence tells me it is not.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

The British government has learned Saddam Hussein recently sought significant

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