And I really believe her....
foxnews.com
Hillary Clinton Says She Played No Role in Presidential Pardons
Wednesday, January 24, 2001
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that she did not trade clemency from her husband for four New York embezzlers in return for votes from an ultra-orthodox Jewish community.
AP/Wide World
Sen. Hillary Clinton: 'I did not play any role whatsoever' in her husband's pardons of four New York embezzlers.
"I did not play any role whatsoever," Clinton said as she left a Democratic Caucus meeting. "I had no opinion about it."
Clinton said she and her husband did meet for about 45 minutes in the White House Map Room with two leaders from the Hasidic community of New Square — Grand Rabbe David Twersky and deputy mayor Izzy Spitzer — on Dec. 22, when Bill Clinton was still president and she the Empire State's senator-elect. And they did speak about having the president commute the sentences of Kalmen Stern, David Goldstein, Benjamin Berger and Jacob Elbaum, four Hasidim convicted of stealing millions in government funds.
While it's unusual for a first lady to attend a clemency meeting, Sen. Clinton said she hadn't heard about the case before that meeting. Clinton had met with leaders of New Square, about 20 miles north of New York City, during her campaign through New York state. The White House invitation to community leaders was offered after an Aug. 7 visit to New Square.
"In the course of their meeting with the president, they mentioned it and that was the first they had ever said something about it in my presence," she said Tuesday.
The White House meeting also touched on education issues and the Middle East peace process, New Square spokesman Rabbi Mayer Schiller said.
Unnamed sources told the New York Post, however, that "other Jewish and political leaders" had talked to Clinton about the issue before the November election and "came away with the impression she supported their cause."
New Square residents voted overwhelmingly for the first lady, Schiller said Tuesday. The Post put the victory at a landslide 1,359 votes for Clinton to 10 for Republican rival Rick Lazio. Many Hasidic communities tend to vote in blocs and because of that, politicians aggressively court their leaders.
When President Clinton was told about the clemencies during the White House meeting, he said he would look into them, Schiller said. One week after the White House meeting, representatives for the president did so.
Stern, Goldstein, Berger and Elbaum were convicted of stealing more than $40 million worth of Pell grants, small-business loans and housing subsidies. In November 1999, they were sentenced to between 30 months and 78 months in prison.
Clinton trimmed the sentences of the four as part of 176 pardons and clemencies he handed out Saturday just hours before leaving office.
Clinton reduced Berger's sentence from 30 months to 24 months. The other three defendants had their sentences reduced to 30 months.
Sen. Clinton said she had taken no official position on any of the clemency applications before her husband and that her role was limited to passing along information other people gave her in support of clemencies to the president.
The New Square cases are only one batch of the Clinton pardons under fire. Most notable was one to millionaire fugitive Mark Rich, whose ex-wife, Denise Rich, was a Democratic donor and a generous contributor to Sen. Clinton's campaign.
Denise Rich's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Tuesday that his client "is happy for her children that her ex-husband has been pardoned. Of course, she supported his application."
Also Tuesday, Clinton traveled for the first time by commercial airline from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., to Washington for her Senate duties. During her time as first lady and during her Senate campaign, Clinton traveled on government jets on the advice of Secret Service.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report |
