Denise Rich indeed: Since 1993, the socialite has given more than $1.3 million in various political contributions to Bill and Hillary Clinton, including $450,000 for the Clinton library in Arkansas
A Pardon’s Path The inquiry into Clinton’s controversial decision to clear fugitive Marc Rich heats up. What’s next By Michael Isikoff NEWSWEEK
Feb. 19 issue — Arthur Levitt Jr. didn’t hide his feelings. On the morning of Jan. 19, the day before Bill Clinton left office, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman got a phone call from a top White House official. The official told Levitt that the president was preparing a last-minute pardon for accused tax swindler Marc Rich. What did he think?
AFTER A QUICK CHECK with his staff, Levitt called back. “The man’s a fugitive!” he fumed. “This looks terrible.” The administration official sheepishly agreed. “Yeah,” he said. “You’re right.”
Levitt wasn’t alone in expressing early doubt at the idea of pardoning Rich, who was charged with evading $48 million in taxes and trading with Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. White House lawyers were concerned that the grounds for a pardon were shaky at best, and would only lead to trouble. In the end, Clinton ignored them all. But why? The former president, in New York exile, has insisted that he granted the pardon strictly on the “merits,” after hearing convincing pleas from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Rich’s well-connected attorney, former White House counsel Jack Quinn. “Once the facts are out there,” Clinton said, “people will understand what I did and why, even if they may not agree with it.”
POTUS,” and Dozoretz discussed the pardon with him. According to the e-mail, Clinton told Dozoretz “that he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH counsels.” (Dozoretz disputes that Clinton told her he was trying to sway the lawyers.)
In their appeals to Clinton, Quinn and Denise Rich tried to win sympathy for Rich by tapping into the president’s own resentment toward the zealous prosecutors who had dogged him for years. Quinn portrayed Rich as the victim of a “highly publicized and aggressive investigation.” Denise Rich laid it on even thicker, saying she knew “what it feels like to see the press try and convict the accused without regard for the truth.” Sources close to Clinton say these arguments hit home. “I think Clinton wanted to pardon all of them,” says one lawyer of the applicants tugging on his sleeve. “He just can’t stand law enforcement.” As he signed Rich’s pardon, Clinton may have thought his own troubles were at an end. If Republicans on the Hill and prosecutors in New York have their way, the latest Clinton scandal may have just begun.
POTUS,” and Dozoretz discussed the pardon with him. According to the e-mail, Clinton told Dozoretz “that he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH counsels.” (Dozoretz disputes that Clinton told her he was trying to sway the lawyers.)
In their appeals to Clinton, Quinn and Denise Rich tried to win sympathy for Rich by tapping into the president’s own resentment toward the zealous prosecutors who had dogged him for years. Quinn portrayed Rich as the victim of a “highly publicized and aggressive investigation.” Denise Rich laid it on even thicker, saying she knew “what it feels like to see the press try and convict the accused without regard for the truth.” Sources close to Clinton say these arguments hit home. “I think Clinton wanted to pardon all of them,” says one lawyer of the applicants tugging on his sleeve. “He just can’t stand law enforcement.” As he signed Rich’s pardon, Clinton may have thought his own troubles were at an end. If Republicans on the Hill and prosecutors in New York have their way, the latest Clinton scandal may have just begun.
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