Obama's VP Screener Missed Problems with Controversial Clinton Pardons

Obama himself has questioned the propriety of Clinton's decision to commute the Weather Underground sentences.

When Sen. Hillary Clinton raised the issue of Obama's friendship with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, at a debate in April, Obama responded: "By Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she'd make it since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with someone for actions that he did 40 years ago."

At the time of their release from prison, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) joined then New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, in criticizing the decision to set free Susan Rosenberg, convicted on weapons and explosives counts, and connected to the Weather Underground's robbery of an armored car in Rockland County, New York that led to the deaths of two police officers and a Brinks' guard.

Schumer's spokesman at the time, Phil Singer, called it a "terrible injustice." Singer worked for the Clinton campaign this year.

Although the petitions for Rosenberg and Evans were filed with the Justice Department, according to their attorney, Davis said that Holder had "no role at all" in the Weather Underground decisions.