George W. Bush continued a U.S. presidential holiday tradition on Tuesday of issuing pardons, granting 19 in all, as well as commuting the prison sentence of a drug offender.

More than 2,000 people had applied to the U.S. Justice Department seeking either pardons or sentence commutations.

However, there were no high-profile legislators on the list — and no mention of Canadian-born former media mogul Conrad Black. Black, along with three others, was found guilty of fraud in 2007 for funnelling $6.1 million US from the media company Hollinger International.

Among those who did receive a pardon was Charles Winters, who was convicted in 1949 of breaking U.S. law and who served 18 months in prison.

In the 1940s Winters had helped ship arms to Jews trying to establish their own Middle East state. He was fined $5,000 and imprisoned for breaking a law against supporting parties in foreign conflicts where the U.S. has not taken sides.

Film director Steven Spielberg even wrote a letter to Bush urging a pardon for Winters, who is considered a hero in Israel. The pardon will be a posthumous one for Winters, who died in the 1980s.

In addition to Winters, 18 others were granted pardons for offences that ranged from gun and drug violations to bank and mail fraud. They were:

  • William Alvis III of Ohio (possession of an unregistered firearm and cocaine distribution).
  • John Allen Aregood of Texas (conspiracy to harbour and transport illegal aliens).
  • Eric Charles Blanke of Colorado (counterfeiting).
  • Steve Doyle Cavender of Florida (conspiracy to import, possess, distribute and dispense marijuana.
  • Marie Elena Eppens of Washington (conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.
  • Lydia Lee Ferguson of Arizona (aiding and abetting possession of stolen mail.
  • Eduviges Duvi Gonzalez-Matsumura of California (aiding and abetting embezzlement of bank funds.
  • George Clarence Greene Jr. of Georgia (mail fraud).
  • James Won Hee Kang of Illinois (trafficking in counterfeit goods).
  • Alan Stephen Maiss of Nevada (concealing knowledge of a crime).
  • Richard Harold Miller of Florida (conspiracy to defraud the United States).
  • Delano Abraham Nixon of Kansas (forging the endorsement on a U.S. Treasury cheque).
  • John H. Overholt of South Dakota (concealment of information affecting Social Security benefits).
  • Morris Keith Parker of South Carolina (concealing knowledge of a crime).
  • Robert Truman Reece of California (unauthorized absence and missing the movement of a U.S. Navy ship).
  • Donald Edward Roessler of Ohio (embezzlement of mail matter).
  • Issac Robert Toussie of New York (false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and mail fraud).
  • David Lane Woolsey of Utah (aiding and abetting violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act).

Bush also commuted the prison sentence of Reed Prior of Iowa who was convicted in 1996 of possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute.

U.S. presidents often hand out a series of pardons during their last month in the White House. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president has an almost unlimited power to grant reprieves (a reduction in punishment) or pardons, which remove the sentence and the criminal record.

Bush has now granted a total of 191 pardons and nine commutations — a total that is less than half as many as recent two-term U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

With files from the Associated Press