Politics

Feds Add Roger Clinton To Probe

March 8, 2001 / 10:47 AM EST / CBS/AP

Federal prosecutors have broadened their presidential pardon investigation, focusing on whether President Clinton's half-brother, Roger, sought $15,000 to help an Arkansas man obtain clemency, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The investigation involves Phillip David Young, a North Little Rock owner who was convicted of illegally transporting game fish across state lines, according to the Times story.

Federal prosecutors in New York were told by Justice Department officials that Roger Clinton reportedly sought $15,000 from Young in exchange for helping secure a presidential pardon, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the investigation.

Young, who reportedly turned down the offer, was eventually pardoned by Mr. Clinton. The restaurateur, who served 10 months in prison, applied for a pardon in 1998.

The U.S. Attorney's office in New York, which was previously investigating Mr. Clinton's controversial pardon of fugitive financier Mark Rich, has added the Roger Clinton allegations to that probe, the Times said.

Roger Clinton, who lives in Torrance, Calif., did not immediately respond to a message for comment Wednesday night. In an interview with the Times last month, he said he never asked for or accepted money in exchange for approaching his half-brother about pardoning people in the last days of his presidency.

Roger Clinton also said then he was unhappy that his brother failed to grant pardons to any of the people he had recommended.

"It sort of caused a rift," he said. "My feelings were hurt."

Roger Clinton himself was pardoned by his older brother during the final hours of his presidency for a drug conviction in the 1980s.

Federal investigators learned of Roger Clinton's purported involvement from Young's attorney, Eugene O'Daniel, who called them twice in January, according to the Times. O'Daniel later identified the man seeking payment as Roger Clinton, sources said.

Members of a House Government Reform Committee have asked Roger Clinton to describe any role he had in pardon requests made to his brother. So far, committee sources say, he hasn't responded.

As for the Marc Rich pardon, committee investigators may seek answers from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, one of the high-ranking Israelis supporting clemency for the now-former fugitive financier.

Mr. Clinton's aides told lawmakers that Barak's support of Rich's petition was key to its success and said Barak talked to the president about it as many as four times. But a source close to Barak told The Associated Press that he raised the issue of pardoning Rich in only a marginal way.

That discrepancy has caught the eye of Rep. Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who chairs the committee that has been investigating te last-minute pardon. "That's one thing we're looking into," he said Wednesday

The committee plans to send a list of questions to Barak this week to find out what the two leaders discussed and how strongly Barak lobbied for the pardon, congressional sources said.

After fleeing America, Rich became an Israeli citizen and has given about $80 million to Israeli hospitals, museums, orchestras, and to projects to take in Jewish immigrants.

Several high-ranking Israeli officials - including Barak, Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit - supported Rich's pardon.

Former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department's No. 2 official, who gave the agency's final recommendation on Rich's pardon, said his discovery of Barak's interest in the case was why his opinion of the pardon changed from "neutral" to "neutral, leaning toward favorable."

Last week, Clinton's former aides told the House committee that Barak and Clinton spoke about Rich's pardon on Jan. 19 during the prime minister's farewell call to the president - and that they apparently also had spoken before then.

The Jerusalem Post, citing a source inside Barak's office, has reported that Barak mentioned Rich in only one call and that the matter came up only at the end.