President Bill Clinton left office with immunity from criminal prosecution and a flurry of pardons, including pardons for his half-brother Roger, Patty Hearst and a fugitive oil-trader, Marc Rich.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, remains opposed to retroactive immunity, his office said.
It's frankly, as an old UN man I can tell you very, very dangerous, this business of offering people immunity for them to leave office.
This means being barred from office for eight years, and so losing the immunity from prosecution that goes with it.
One of them, Milan Milutinovic, the president of Serbia, has immunity under the constitution, and his office has dismissed reports, following Mr Milosevic's departure, that he may surrender himself to the tribunal, perhaps in order to testify against Mr Milosevic.
By then, a second bill was to take effect guaranteeing immunity from prosecution to Italy's four top office-holders, including the prime minister.
"The high respect that is owed to the office of the chief executive, though not justifying a rule of categorical immunity, is a matter that should inform the conduct of the entire proceeding, " wrote Stevens.
Bersani's platform included judicial reforms that reverse legislation passed when Berlusconi held office, including expanding statutes of limitations on financial crimes and stripping political leaders of immunity.
Murtha read a statement Wednesday that Tripp "would never have voluntarily waived her constitutional rights" when she provided the tapes to Starr's office if she had known she could be prosecuted at the state level, despite the immunity against prosecution at the federal level.
He pressed for Mr Chiluba's immunity from prosecution to be lifted and the former president was charged with stealing money during his time in office.
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