No last minute pardon was given to Roger Clemens before President Bush left the White House last Tuesday. The federal grand jury examining the evidence regarding the former Yankee’s perjury commission however, will proceed with the case.

Brian McNamee’s counsel Richard Emery considered the possibility of a Bush pardon after Clemens testified at the congressional hearing on the Mitchell report on 13 February 2008.

According to Emery, they were glad that neither Clemens nor Bush stooped to conquer. They hoped that by raising the issue they have immunized it and helped prevent it. Emery also added that he raised the pardon issue because the Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform looks eager to protect Clemens and strike at McNamee on last year’s hearing.

Clemens had also brought up his friendship with former US President Bush while on the hearing. Clemens testified that he was never really contracted by former Senate Majority Leader Mitchell or any of his investigators, but said that Bush Sr. searched for him to wish him well after the release of the volatile reports on steroids and baseball.

Rusty Hardin, Clemens’ attorney, said that he would not seek pardon on behalf of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. Hardin stood with conviction and denied that Clemens ever used performance-enhancing drugs, and maintained that innocent people don’t ask for pardons. According to Hardin, Richard Emery just had to quit his own dope, when he first raised the issue of pardon.

Even with Clemens’ ties with the Bush family, Washington insiders claim that in the recent weeks, a pardon was very unlikely.

One reason perhaps is the round race which involves the Barry Bonds perjury trial which will start on March in San Francisco, and the fact that Marion Jones, the Olympic track star who served a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators and check fraud had unsuccessfully sought pardon. Bush would have ignited angry protest if he got involved for Clemens and not for the two African-American athletes.

Bush created a buzz when he altered Scooter Libby’s 30-month prison sentence last 2007. The 43rd President must have been still smarting from his Dec. 23rd pardon of Isaac Toussie, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to lying to feds to get mortgages for unqualified home buyers. Bush later cancelled the pardon after reports came out that Toussie’s father had donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee.

If Bush really did get involved in the case of Clemens, questions about his own indirect role in the Major League Baseball steroid scandal would have been raised. Bush was the managing general partner of the Texas Rangers when Jose Canseco alleged that he taught his teammates about performance-enhancing drugs.

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