Dec. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush withdrew a pardon yesterday for a New York real-estate developer after it became known that the developer’s father made the maximum $28,500 donation to the Republican National Committee months earlier.

Isaac Robert Toussie of Brooklyn, one of 19 people pardoned by Bush on Dec. 23, pleaded guilty in 2001 to using false documents to get federally insured mortgages and in 2002 to mail fraud for selling land to Suffolk County at twice the appraised value.

Toussie was sentenced in September 2003 to five months in jail, five months of home detention and a $10,000 fine.

“There were some details that weren’t presented to the president when he considered the pardon,” spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday in an interview. He explained that the administration didn’t become aware of the political contributions until reporters broached the topic.

The father, Robert Toussie, also of Brooklyn, contributed $28,500 to the Republican National Committee on April 25 and $2,300 to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign five days later.

In October, Toussie made $2,300 donations to two Republican U.S. senators in close races, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Gordon Smith of Oregon.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group, has no records of any earlier donations by Robert Toussie nor any contributions by Isaac Toussie.

In a follow-up interview, Fratto said, “Political contributions had absolutely nothing to do with the president’s consideration” of the pardon request. “Neither he, nor the White House counsel’s office, in making the recommendation, were aware of any political contributions.”

“Extremely Rare”

Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the presidential clemency process, said in an e-mail that rescinding a pardon is “extremely rare.”

“Because the pardon power is constrained only by executive discretion, the president usually takes care to get it right before making the decision,” Roosevelt said.

Some presidents have rescinded pardons granted by their predecessors, said R.S. Ruckman, an associate professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois, and author of the pardonpower.com blog. President Ulysses Grant revoked two pardons granted by Andrew Johnson, he said.

Ruckman said the combination of the campaign donation and the fact that both the pardon attorney and the deputy attorney general didn’t approve Toussie’s pardon raise concerns.

“Those two things together makes this reasonably suspicious,” he said.

Bush’s predecessor, President Bill Clinton, was criticized for his last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich before leaving office in 2001. Rich’s former wife, Denise, had contributed between $250,000 and $500,000 to Clinton’s foundation.

Pardon Attorney

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement that Bush ordered the Justice Department’s pardon attorney “not to execute and deliver a grant of clemency to Mr. Toussie.” The pardon attorney hadn’t initially reviewed the request because it came less than five years after Toussie’s sentence ended, Perino said.

“The president believes that the pardon attorney should have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made,” Perino said.

Henry Mazurek, a New York lawyer who has represented Isaac Toussie, didn’t immediately respond to a voice mail message left after business hours yesterday. A contact number for Toussie couldn’t be located.

Fratto said the pardon request was made both to White House Counsel Fred Fielding and the Justice Department. He said it was “not unusual for petitions” for pardons to be brought to the counsel’s office.

Toussie’s pardon application was filed by his lawyers in August with the Justice Department and then was presented to Fielding’s office by the lawyers earlier this month, Fratto said. Calls to Fielding’s office after business hours were not immediately returned.

Homeowner Suit

Fielding directly reviewed the pardon application “because he’s involved in every single pardon,” Fratto said. “Fred makes the pardon recommendations to the president.”

Fratto also said one of Toussie’s lawyers was Brad Berenson, a former associate counsel in the White House counsel’s office during Bush’s first term.

The Toussies were sued by the buyers of about 250 houses who claim they were steered to overpriced homes and were misled about their mortgage obligations, said Peter Seidman, a lawyer with Milberg LLP in New York representing the plaintiffs.

“It’s the type of practice that got us into the trouble that we’re in now,” Seidman said. “I am glad that someone in the White House woke up and realized that this kind of conduct is intolerable.”

The lawsuit accused the Toussies of incorrectly advertising that their project was sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and black celebrities including Maya Angelou and Whoopi Goldberg.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 25, 2008 13:17 EST