Article...CASH FOR CLEMENCY...
Roger's pardon a first-family first
Scholar: 'An outrageous act that set back government ethics by decades'
worldnetdaily.com
By Paul Sperry
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Former President Clinton's pardon of his drug-dealer brother, Roger Cassidy Clinton, hasn't gotten as much press as his last-minute pardons of a wealthy fugitive and a drug kingpin.
But ethically, it's in the same league, argues a constitutional scholar still shocked by the act.
For starters, no other president has given clemency directly to a close relative, notes constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University.
"There's no precedent for that," he said.
It's also a violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Turley says, which prohibits U.S. officials from using their authority to benefit family members.
"The president's pardon of his half-brother was an outrageous act that set back government ethics by decades," he said in an interview with WorldNetDaily.
"This is the most egregious violation of government ethics that I have reviewed, in terms of a benefit being given to a family member," he added.
Roger Clinton didn't apply for a pardon. If he had, his petition wouldn't have been given any serious consideration by the Justice Department, based on long-established guidelines for reviewing pardons, Turley says.
"For one, there was no claim that he was innocent," he said. "On the contrary, he's admitted guilt."
Roger Clinton
On Nov. 9, 1984, Clinton pleaded guilty to felony charges of distributing cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
"And there was no suggestion that he was given an unfair process," Turley said. "He's never claimed his rights were violated."
"Finally, there was no question as to an overzealous prosecutor or over-sentencing," he said. "If anything, Roger Clinton's sentencing was below the national average" for such drug charges.
On Jan. 28, 1985, Clinton was sentenced to two years in a federal prison on the conspiracy charge. A three-year sentence on the distribution charge was suspended.
He ended up serving a little more than a year in a Forth Worth prison. He was out on probation in the spring of 1986.
"So there was no basis on which a pardon could be granted," Turley said.
He says Clinton clearing his younger brother's criminal record is "a core ethical violation and constitutes an improper use of official authority."
It's not the only pardon Clinton has granted involving his brother.
Right after winning the 1990 Arkansas governor's race, Clinton pardoned old pal Danny Ray Lasater of cocaine-distribution charges.
Roger Clinton was named as an unindicted coconspirator in the federal case against Lasater. |
