Posted on 02/03/2002 4:14:41 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
NewsMax.com
Sunday, Feb. 3, 2002 11:51 a.m. EST
O'Reilly: Bush Justice Dept. Hamstringing Pardongate Probers
Investigators with the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District are being actively discouraged from pursuing evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the Clinton Pardongate scandal, with one insider charging that any prosecutor who tries to build a case against the former first family may actually hurt his career.
So says Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, who made the startling cover-up allegation in his column this weekend.
"Although the Justice Department continues to say the probe is 'on the front burner', agents have told me there is little incentive to get things done," the Fox News commentator claimed. "In fact, one investigator said, if you push too hard on the case, you could find yourself in Fargo, N.D."
O'Reilly suggested that the Justice Department's go-slow regimen for probing the Clintons final White House scandal was likely instigated by the Bush White House.
"George W. Bush understands the way the game in Washington is played. You must make 'accommodations.'..... And what Bush may have given the Democrats is the assurance that he will not embarrass their party by aggressively pursuing the Marc Rich pardon investigation."
The first sign of Justice Department footdragging emerged last year, when New York attorney Ed Hayes, whose client Garland Lincecum had given prosecutors damaging evidence implicating former first brother Roger Clinton in Pardongate wrongdoing, expressed doubts about the probe.
In comments covered exclusively by NewsMax.com, Hayes told WABC radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander last June:
"The big issue now is does the government want to press the case. Because, for one thing, to really show whether or not there was a crime committed, you really have to question Bill Clinton. You really have to ask, 'Did Roger talk to his brother Bill about getting a pardon for Garland? Did Roger talk to anybody about getting a pardon for Garland?'"
Bill Clinton still has yet to testify. Even back then Hayes suggested that probers were being reined in on orders from Washington.
"You never know in these cases how dedicated they are to making the case. ... I think [lead Pardongate prober] Elliot Jacobson is a very conscientious prosecutor. But he does what he can do within the Justice Department."
Hayes hinted a political deal was already in the works: "You don't know whether [the Bush administration] is going to trade three federal judicial appointments in return for turning a blind eye to this." (See: Bush Justice Department Putting the Brakes on Pardongate Probe?)
O'Reilly now agrees, positing that Bush will reactivate the Clinton probe only if the GOP regains control of the Senate or if "things get rough."
"The Marc Rich pardon deal can always be used as a threat," he concluded.
Read Bill O'Reilly's full column on the Pardongate cover-up in NewsMax.com's magazine.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals
Pardongate
Sen. Hillary Clinton
I had hoped that Bush would bring us some justice.......after eight long years of suffering!
George Bush has no business going after clinton personally with a vindictive vendetta, which is exactly the way clinton would have behaved. But he also has no business hamstringing the prosecutors. He should put good prosecutors into office, get out of the way, and let them do their job.
Russians buy Marc Rich operation/and/Reports tie Marc Rich to Russian Spies
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"Were going to go after all crime, and were going to make sure people get punished for the crime."
George W. Bush - Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University - Oct 11, 2000
"It is not possible to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' while deliberately violating the law.."
John Ashcroft - Aug. 1, 1998 (Washington Post).
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Ever hear Truman's old saying.....The buck stops here?
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