Cisneros says maybe it would've been better if he hadn't been pardoned.(The Dallas Morning News)

SAN ANTONIO, Texas _ Former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said that President Bill Clinton pardoned him out of disdain for "extreme" independent counsels and believed Cisneros was pursued for his association with his former boss.

During an interview Tuesday at the San Antonio housing project of his new company, American CityVista, Cisneros emphasized that he was surprised by the pardon and didn't seek it.

Cisneros also said he has no plans to seek public office, a declaration likely to disappoint backers of the former San Antonio mayor who have touted him for statewide office.

While grateful, he said he sometimes wished the pardon hadn't happened amid controversies surrounding other recipients _ most notably fugitive financier Marc Rich. Clinton's action also renewed attention on the episode that ultimately resulted in charges against Cisneros.

Following a lengthy investigation, he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI about payments he made to former mistress Linda Medlar Jones prior to joining the first Clinton cabinet in 1993.

When he called the former president to thank him, Cisneros said, Clinton gave him two reasons for the pardon.

"One, because he abhors the extremes of the independent counsels, and he felt he just wanted to wipe that out of existence [to end] a bad chapter of American jurisprudence," Cisneros recalled during his most extensive comments on the presidential pardon. "Secondly, he felt that people came after me principally because I was associated with him.