Voter Political Blog

President Bush yanked back his pardon of convicted Brooklyn housing scammer Isaac Toussie on Wednesday after red-faced White House officials said it was approved too fast.

The stunning about-face came after the Daily News reported that Toussie’s father, Robert, gave $28,500 to the Republican National Committee earlier this year - and recounted the outrage and pain of homebuyers who said they were fleeced by the father-and-son developers.

The News also learned that Toussie’s bid got help from a politically wired former Bear Stearns executive - and asked the White House to explain why the pardon process bypassed the usual Justice Department vetting channels.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush’s change of heart was “based on information that has subsequently come to light,” including the extent and nature of Toussie’s crimes.

She added that neither White House counsel Fred Fielding - who approved the pardon - nor Bush had known about the RNC donation by Robert Toussie and admitted that it “might create an appearance of impropriety.”

A source who was ­closely involv­ed in pardons for two administra­tions said Bush’s flip-flop was unprecedented.

“I don’t know of any case in which the President said, ‘Oops, I changed my mind,’” the lawyer said.

The pardon request has been shuffled off to the Justice Department’s pardon attorney for review, where the chances of it being reinstated seem doubtful.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said earlier that Toussie was ineligible for review there because “under DOJ clemency requirements, five years had not expired since his imprisonment had ended.”

A Toussie lawyer, Bradford Beren­son, said his client “remains confident that the pardon attorney will agree with the President and the White House counsel.” Berenson formerly served in the counsel’s office.

Peter Seidman, a Milberg LLP lawyer who represents 460 victims who filed a federal lawsuit against the developer, hailed Bush’s change of heart.

“I’m glad someone woke up and saw that a pardon of Isaac Toussie would be a travesty of justice,” he said.

Toussie, 36, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and lying to the Department of Housing and ­Urban Development, falsifying the finances of prospective homebuyers seeking HUD mortgages. He served five months in prison, and his supervised probation ended early in 2006.

Stymied at the Justice Department, Toussie’s lawyers from the Washington power law firm Sidley Austin moved on to the White House counsel’s office. The approval bypassed Attorney General Michael Mukasey and U.S. Pardon Attorney Ronald Rod­gers, who would normally sign off.

Bush’s staff lawyers said they didn’t know about the RNC donation, or that Toussie had duped hundreds of struggling blacks and Latinos into buying overpriced dumps on Long Island.

“The real question is how did his name end up on the pardon list in the first place?” snapped Naomi Seligman, deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Word of Bush’s reversal came late in the day as The News was set to report that three Toussie family friends were “affiants” who vouched for him in writing, including GOP donor Robert Steinberg of Greenwich, Conn.

Steinberg was a senior managing director at Bear Stearns before it collapsed in March.

The same page of campaign finance records that lists Robert Toussie’s dona­tion also show a Robert Steinberg giving $30,800 to the RNC and the John McCain campaign on the same day.

Steinberg and his wife, Suzanne, also gave a total of $9,200 to Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

“I don’t know why [the pardon] would be controversial,” Steinberg scoffed in a call from his oceanfront winter retreat in Highland Beach, Fla.

Steinberg is a “good friend of the family” and was Robert Toussie’s college roommate, said Isaac Toussie lawyer Henry Mazurek.

Source: http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/long-island-real-estate-scammer-buys-then-loses-presidential-pardonissac-toussie-was-one-of-the-worst-sub-prime-mortgage-hustlers-in-the-new-york-city-area/