...Yet, even as Clinton was granting Braswell a pardon, federal investigators were examining what they called "a massive tax evasion and money-laundering scheme" allegedly conducted by Braswell and his California dietary supplement empire....
...Justice Department officials would not discuss Braswell's pardon. Amid the flurry of last-minute pardons and commutations, Braswell's name was one of about two dozen announced without details, suggesting that Clinton had left little time for federal law officers to evaluate Braswell.
Yet, less than four months before his pardon, Braswell invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination more than 100 times in a two-hour deposition in a South Carolina civil case, opposing lawyer Vernon Glenn said yesterday....
....Former Miami U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey, one of former vice president Al Gore's attorneys in the Florida recount case, represented Braswell in his effort to obtain a pardon. Coffey did not return several telephone calls seeking comment. Washington attorney Gerald Feffer, who represents Braswell in the tax and money-laundering probe, declined to discuss his client.
Braswell "has probably managed to sell more health-related products with misleading claims than anyone else in the history of the world. His gross intake has very likely been over a billion dollars," said Stephen Barrett, who runs an independent watchdog organization, Quackwatch.com. "I can't imagine that anyone who was involved knew what Braswell was all about. If they did, this is even worse."...
washingtonpost.com
Do you think Clinton was too busy stealing furniture to notice who he was selling pardons to? Naw, he's the smartest guy around and he did take care to make sure it bypassed the Justice Department. |
