Love it.
Posted on 12/14/2004 4:01:00 AM PST by Liz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Clinton on Saturday defended his eleventh-hour pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich and vehemently denied that it was linked to more than $1 million in donations by Rich's ex-wife.
In a guest column posted on The New York Times Web site, Clinton gave a detailed account of his reasons for pardoning Rich and his former business partner, Pincus Green, citing the intervention of many high-ranking Israeli officials and U.S. Jewish community leaders as an important factor.
``The suggestion that I granted the pardons because Mr. Rich's former wife, Denise, made political contributions and contributed to the Clinton library foundation is utterly false,'' Clinton wrote in the long piece, which was datelined Chappaqua, New York, where he now lives.
``There was absolutely no quid pro quo,'' wrote the former president, who has been dogged by questions about the Rich pardon since he left office on Jan. 20.
In fact, he said, he had turned down clemency requests from other friends and financial supporters. During his final hours as president, Clinton pardoned Rich who had fled the United States to Switzerland 17 years ago to avoid prosecution on more than 50 counts including tax evasion, racketeering and illegal oil trading with Iran.
Federal law enforcement agencies and two congressional panels are probing the pardon to determine whether they were connected to campaign contributions by Rich's ex-wife, Denise Rich.
CITES EIGHT LEGAL AND FOREIGN POLICY REASONS
In the editorial to appear in Sunday's New York Times, Clinton cited eight ``legal and foreign policy reasons'' for his decision to pardon Rich and Green. He said other oil companies that carried out similar transactions were sued civilly and did not face criminal charges; and in 1985, in a related case against a Rich trading partner, the Energy Department found that the accounting for the transactions was done in a proper manner.
Clinton said two top tax experts from Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center also reviewed the disputed transactions and concluded the companies ``were correct in their U.S. income tax treatment of all the items in question'' and there was no unreported federal income or other tax liability attributable to any of the challenged transactions.
Despite that conclusion, the two men's companies had paid approximately $200 million in fines, penalties and taxes, and the Justice Department in 1989 rejected the use of racketeering statutes in tax cases like this one, Clinton said.
He said he also understood that Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder's position on the pardon application was ``neutral, leaning for,'' and the case for the pardons was reviewed and advocated by former Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn, and three top Republican attorneys, including Lewis Libby, now Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
``Finally, and importantly, many present and former high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe urged the pardon of Mr. Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes, to the Mossad's efforts to rescue and evacuate Jews from hostile countries, and to the peace process through sponsorship of education and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank,'' Clinton said.
Clinton said that while he was troubled by the criminal charges brought against the two men, he wanted to assure the government's ability to pursue any Energy Department, civil tax or other charges against them -- and required both men to waive any defenses to any civil charges before granting the pardons.
RICH CAN NOW BE SUED
``I believe my pardon decision was in the best interests of justice. If the two men were wrongly indicted in the first place, justice has been done,'' Clinton said. ``On the other hand, if they do personally owe money for Energy Department penalties, unpaid taxes or civil fines, they can now be sued civilly .... a result that might not have been possible without the waiver, because civil statutes of limitations may have run out while they were out of the United States.''
He said he should have consulted the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, although he was familiar with her views, and he regretted Holder did not have more time to review the case.
Congressional investigators prepared subpoenas earlier this week to force three former Clinton top aides to testify on the last-minute pardon, including former chief of staff John Podesta, adviser Bruce Lindsey and counsel Beth Nolan.
Denise Rich has donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes since 1993, including $450,000 to Clinton's library foundation. She has been asked to testify before Congress or respond to questions but has refused, claiming her constitutional right to not incriminate herself.
Balderdash. Rich was never sued.
Just add this to the Oil for Food Scandal shopping list.
Maybe Billy'll write an op-ed on how great it was to sell out the WH for personal gain?
Maybe Denise laid down for her country?
.....oh wait, I forgot something......
We need the pic of Clinton in a prison jumpsuit over here.
So, what else is new?
Takes one to know one, eh?
He and his evil wife should be behind bars instead of writing op eds for the NYSlimes.
Spin is the name of their evil game.
The MSM falls on its knees to kiss his butt.
President Squirt. The gift that keeps on giving.
I think that Lawrence O'Donell, that under-medicated twerp, would voluntarily substitute to fill in for Monica Lewinsky, if the need arose.
Love it.
Awesome.
Yeah Bill...You're a joke a minute.......By the way....when is that double wide traler park trash library of yours going to shoot across the river???
The gift that keeps on giving.....this could end Hillary's national aspirations...
MARC RICH EXHIBIT AT THE CLINTON LIBRARY.
Clinton's Bridge to Perdition.
What's truly amazing is that they spend more time in that museum discussing Marshall Applewhite and the Heaven's Gate cult, than the do explaining what exactly Monica Lewinsky was supposed to be doing in the Oval Office.
Man, that face of hers makes you want to vomit.
Then you get a load of the cleavage (gag).
No mention of the Oil for Food scandal in the piece?
Face? She's got a face?
Just whose justice William...yours, Reno and Rich?
"...he regretted Holder did not have more time to review the case..." ----but other lawyers did?
"...high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe urged the pardon of Mr. Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes..."
Typical Clinton - give someone else a black eye....
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