Posted on 12/06/2008 8:33:40 PM PST by Coleus
Soon after Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, the former president and I had a brief telephone conversation. I had been downright heated about the pardon, a lot angrier than I had ever been about Monica Lewinsky. Clinton implied that I had things historically backward. Long after the Rich pardon had been forgotten, he said, the Lewinsky scandal would remain a vivid memory. That day is yet to come. The Rich pardon is back. The vehicle for this lingering echo from the year 2001 is the choice of Eric Holder as Barack Obama's attorney general. Holder was Clinton's deputy attorney general and he played a significant role in the pardon. When asked by the White House what he thought about a pardon for Rich, Holder replied, "Neutral, leaning towards favorable." These four words have stalked him ever since.
Rich was a commodities trader who amassed both a fortune and some influential friends back in the 1970s and '80s. Along with his partner, Pincus Green, he was indicted in 1983 on 65 counts of tax evasion and related matters. Before he could be prosecuted, however, he fled to Switzerland. There he remained, avoiding extradition and eventually arranging to be represented by Jack Quinn, a Washington lawyer and Clinton's one-time White House counsel - in other words, a certified power broker. Quinn did an end run around the Justice Department's pardon office and went straight to Holder and the White House. With a stroke of the pen, justice was not done. Holder was not just an integral part of the pardon process, he provided the White House with cover by offering his go-ahead recommendation.
(Excerpt) Read more at presstelegram.com ...
Somewhere there is a photo of me protesting in Miami when Clinton spoke at a Jewish center following the Rich pardons. It was published in at least two newspapers.
attorney general? what about the secretary of state?!
Holder’s involvement in the Rich pardon is terrible and that alone should disqualify him from being teh nation’s chief law-enforcement officer. But it’s not even the worst thing in which he was involved.
he was involved with Reno in the illegal seizure (kidnapping) of Elian gonzalez back to Communist tyranny.
He was instrumental in getting the FALN people pardoned and in getting pardons for two Weather Underground members (that’s Bill Ayers’s group.) These things are wore than teh Rich pardon.
Looks like Goebbels is upset with Hitler.
My hunch has always been that we will never understand what was really going on in the Clinton White House until we understand:
-the Foster suicide and ransacking of his office afterwards
-the Marc Rich pardon
“attorney general? what about the secretary of state?!
Haven’t you heard? The Clintons are immune from all accountability.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.