Congressional Research Service finds a president can revoke a pardon as Bush did

The President of the United States has broad and essentially unfettered authority to issue pardons for offenses against the United States, a new Congressional Research Service report on the subject explains.

"It also appears that a pardon may be revoked at any time prior to acceptance or delivery" of the warrant of pardon, according to the CRS assessment, which finds no flaw in the recent decision by President Bush"not to execute" a previously announced pardon in the case of real estate developer Isaac R. Toussie. See "An Overview of the Presidential Pardoning Power" (pdf), January 7, 2009.