Did you read this???? If I were Rich, I'd keep my mouth shut!
Now Hillary has more involvement to deny! How long can this go on until the American people say "Enough" get rid of Hillary too.
foxnews.com
Rich: Pardon a 'Humanitarian Act'
Saturday, February 24, 2001
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Fugitive financier Marc Rich spoke out Saturday about his controversial pardon, calling former President Clinton's last-minute clemency announcement a "humanitarian act."
Urs Flueeler/AP
Nov. 27, 2000: Marc Rich in Switzerland.
Rich said the pardon righted a wrong dating back to 1983, when he was indicted on a $48 million tax evasion charge. Rich was also charged with committing fraud and making illegal oil deals with Iran.
"I do not consider the pardon granted by President Clinton as an eradication of past deeds — but as the closing of a cycle of justice and a humanitarian act," Rich said in a written statement distributed by a Tel Aviv public relations office.
It was the first time he spoke publicly about the Jan. 20 pardon.
The pardon is now subject to U.S. Congressional hearings and a federal probe.
Rich's comments came as the clemency case continued to grow, with the former president and Sen. Hillary Clinton battling accusations that their family members influenced the presidential pardon process. In a further development, the U.S. attorney's office on Friday began investigating whether the former president commuted the sentences of four Hasidic men in exchange for votes for his wife.
Earlier in the week, Sen. Clinton decried her brother Hugh Rodham's decision to accept $400,000 to help two felons obtain clemency as "a terrible misjudgment" and denied knowledge of the payoff. Rodham has claimed he returned the money to the two men.
And Bill Clinton's office confirmed late Thursday that Roger Clinton had lobbied his brother on behalf of friends and associates who requested pardons. The president refused all of them, a Clinton spokeswoman said.
Rich Describes 'Painful' Exile
In his statement on Saturday, Rich described his life abroad for the past 18 years as a painful "exile," saying he was forced to live outside the United States because he did not think he would receive a fair trial there.
The Belgian-born Rich grew up in the United States but renounced his U.S. citizenship. He holds Israeli and Spanish citizenship and has lived in Switzerland since 1983.
"The indictment against me in the United States was wrong and was meant to hurt me personally — the pardon granted by President Clinton remedied this injustice 18 years later," Rich said.
Rich regularly shuns interviews and has not spoken publicly since receiving the pardon on Clinton's last day in office. He said he issued the statement in response to the heightened media scrutiny.
Rich defended his work as a philanthropist in the statement.
"I am happy and proud of my contributions to people and cultural and medical organizations in Israel, the United States, and around the world. It is unfortunate that these acts are now being described as calculating acts," said Rich.
Clinton has cited high-level Israeli support of Rich as one of the reasons he pardoned the billionaire. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak and a former chief of the Mossad spy agency were among top Israeli officials who pushed Clinton to pardon Rich.
Over the past 20 years, Rich has contributed up to $80 million to Israeli hospitals, museums, symphonies and to the absorption of immigrants. He also had a role in helping Israel get Jews out of Ethiopia and Yemen.
Hillary Denies Role in Hasidic Pardons
Sen. Clinton has admitted to sitting in on a December meeting with supporters of clemency for the Hasidic men, who were convicted of stealing millions in government funds. They resided in the Hasidic community of New Square in Rockland County. Hillary Rodham Clinton received 1,400 votes in New Square and her Republican rival Rick Lazio received 12 votes in last November's New York Senate race.
Dennis Cook/AP
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., answers questions raised by her husband's last-minute pardons.
Clinton said that while she sat in on the clemency meeting, she 'did not play any role whatsoever' in her husband's decision to commute their sentences.
The president and his wife, then New York's senator-elect, met Dec. 22 with two leaders from the New Square Hasidim who supported clemency for Kalmen Stern, David Goldstein, Benjamin Berger and Jacob Elbaum.
The former first lady also traveled to New Square during her Senate campaign and met Grand Rabbi David Twersky.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White and the FBI, in a joint statement last week, announced they were opening a probe into presidential pardons, but declined to provide any specifics. The investigation also is said to include the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose former wife, Denise, is a major Democratic fund-raiser.
Brother Trouble: It's All Relative
On Thursday, Sen. Clinton decried her brother Hugh Rodham's decision to accept $400,000 to help two felons obtain clemency as "a terrible misjudgment" and denied knowledge of the payoff.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
Bill Clinton chats with his brother-in-law, Hugh Rodham.
"I was just heartbroken and shocked by it and, you know, immediately said it was a terrible misjudgment and the money had to be returned," the former first lady said, referring to the money her brother received for his legal work in helping to commute the sentence of Carlos Vignali and in obtaining the pardon of Almon Glenn Braswell.
On Friday, Sen. Clinton's husband fought similar accusations, as a House committee began investigating whether the former president's brother Roger had any influence on the pardon decisions.
"Roger did ask the president to consider a list of less than 10 names of friends and acquaintances," the spokeswoman, Julia Payne, said. "None of those pardons were granted nor did he receive any money."
The House Government Reform Committee chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., requested by letter that Roger Clinton explain whether he was involved in the pardons or commutations of Vignali, Braswell, Phillip Young and Mitchell Couey Wood before the committee holds its next hearing March 1.
Young, of Little Rock, Ark., was convicted of interstate transportation and the sale of fish and wildlife, while Wood, of Sherwood, Ark., was convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
Vignali, the son of a major campaign contributor in Los Angeles, was serving a 15-year sentence on a drug conviction; Braswell was convicted for fraud and other crimes stemming from false claims in 1983 about the effectiveness of a treatment for baldness.
Roger Clinton, a singer, got his own pardon — one of 140 the president made on his final day in office — for a 1985 drug charge. Roger Clinton was arrested Monday for drunk driving in Los Angeles. His personal manager, Vickie Crawford, refused to comment.
Hillary's Campaign Staff Involved
A fresh disclosure Thursday that Sen. Clinton's campaign treasurer was paid $4,000 in legal fees to prepare two pardon applications further muddied the pardon flap.
William Cunningham III said he had never contacted the White House about the cases, or spoken with either of the Clintons about them.
Cunningham's law partner, Clinton adviser Harold Ickes, also said he never spoke to the couple about the cases. Cunningham said Ickes referred two Arkansas pardon-seekers, both Republicans, to him about a week before Clinton left office.
The two men, Robert Clinton Fain and James Lowell Manning, were convicted in the 1980s on tax charges.
The former first lady described Cunningham as a "fine lawyer and a fine man. ... Lawyers from all over the country were involved in these matters." |
