Politics

Pardon Pressure?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 1, 2001 / 9:43 AM EST / CBS

Denise Rich, ex-wife of pardoned fugitive Marc Rich, pushed nearly $500,000 toward Democratic causes after a Rich confidant sent an e-mail saying she should be sent on a "on a personal mission to NO1" — whom congressional investigators identify as President Clinton.

Republicans and a federal prosecutor in New York have been trying to find out whether there was a money-for-pardon deal in Mr. Clinton's grant of clemency to the billionaire commodities trader.

Rich, who fled the United States in 1983 rather than face racketeering and other criminal charges, was pardoned by Mr. Clinton on Jan. 20 just before George W. Bush assumed the presidency.

The New York Post reports in its Saturday editions that Marc Rich may be trying to settle his back $137 million New York State tax bill.

The paper quotes a state official as saying Rich has put out feelers toward that end through "someone we consider a close business associate." N.Y. State Tax Department spokesman Marc Carey told the Post that the contact indicated associates of Rich "would like to come in and meet about this issue."

Records examined Friday show there was a flurry of donations from Denise Rich — who divorced Rich in 1991 — following the "personal mission" e-mail, which was released Thursday at a House Government Reform Committee hearing.

The March 18, 2000, e-mail by Rich representative Avner Azulay to Rich lawyer Robert Fink talks about sending Denise Rich "on a personal mission to N01 with a well-prepared script. If it works, we didn't lose the present opportunity — until Nov — which shall not repeat itself."

"NO1" apparently referred to Mr. Clinton.

Clinton supporters have said Denise Rich's contributions to the Clinton presidential library project came months before talk of a presidential pardon request.

Indeed, Mrs. Rich is a longtime supporter of Democratic causes. According to the FEC, she gave $62,000 to Democratic causes in 1997, $236,000 in 1998 and $109,000 in 1999.

She also made donations to the library foundation totaling $450,000 -- $250,000 in July 1998, then $100,000 in August 1999.

But a seven-month flow of half a million dollars in contributions by Denise Rich followed the e-mail, starting with $50,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign on March 21.

Other donations went to the Democratic Party and Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign (totaling $278,500) and President Clinton's library foundation ($100,000).

Jack Quinn, Rich's attorney in pursuing the pardon and formerly Mr. Clinton's White House counsel, said he did not believe Denise Rich spoke to the president at that time about the pardon.

Committee officials looked at the names of 149 other large donors to the library foundation this week. On Monday, they expect to see how much certain donors gave and when. The review was to have occurred on Friday but was put off until the next week, officials aid.

The Clinton foundation also was supplying a list of donors in response to a subpoena from New York U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who is conducting a criminal investigation into Mr. Clinton's pardon of Rich. Mr. Clinton issued a total of 140 pardons and 36 commutations in his final hours in office.

Aides to the former president Thursday told Burton's committee that money had nothing to do with the Rich pardon, saying instead that the reprieve may have come after urging from outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak called Mr. Clinton at least three times to appeal for Rich's pardon, and even mentioned it in a farewell call to the outgoing president the afternoon before Mr. Clinton left office. When Mr. Clinton met with his top aides that night — all of whom had opposed the pardon to Mr. Clinton — it was clear that Barak's call had been "influential," White House chief of staff John Podesta said.

In their testimony, Podesta, former White House counsel Beth Nolan and Clinton adviser Bruce Lindsey painted a picture of a harried White House staff trying to get as many things done as possible in their final days.

"Because this came in so late, we did not do the kind of checks we should have done," Nolan said.

But Podesta said he didn't think Mr. Clinton did anything illegal. "I believe that President Clinton considered the legal merits of the argument for the pardons as he understood them, and rendered his judgment, wise or unwise, on those merits," he said.

Key witness Beth Dozoretz, a friend of Rich's ex-wife Denise and a former finance director of the Democratic National Committee, told the committee that she would refuse to answer their questions. Dozoretz pledged to raise $1 million for Mr. Clinton's library.

Denise Rich was allowed to refuse to testify without appearing before the committee.