In 2002, Comey, then a federal prosecutor, took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted on a laundry list of charges before fleeing the country. The decision set off a political firestorm focused on accusations that Rich’s ex-wife Denise made donations to the Democratic Party, the Clinton Library and Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign as part of a plan to get Rich off the hook. Comey ultimately decided not to pursue the case.
The kicker: Comey himself had overseen Rich’s prosecution between 1987 and 1993.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2001/06/rich200106
The Clinton Pardons
THE FACE OF SCANDAL
(snip)
“Every year there was a new initiative,” says Comey, who in 1992 joined Otto Obermaier, then U.S. attorney for the Southern District, at a meeting in Switzerland with Rich and Green and their lawyers. Comey says they had been led to believe that the two men were ready to plead. “But it quickly became apparent to us they wanted to explain their enormous good works and debate the merits of the case.
(snip)
At one point Garment hired two tax experts, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s husband, Martin Ginsburg, and Harvard professor Bernard Wolfman, for more than $70,000. They rendered an opinion that, “according to the facts given” them—which prosecutors insist were far from complete—Rich and Green were technically not guilty of criminal tax evasion. Comey says Garment came to see him with a flip chart and said, “Yes, it’s true [Rich’s] companies kept two sets of books, and it appears they desperately tried to commit a crime.” But then their actions were compared to those of a car thief intending to steal a car: Having larceny in his heart, he breaks into the car in the dark of night and drives it away only to find it’s his own car! Comey adds wryly that this argument “lacked a certain appeal.” But that opinion is pretty close to the heart of the petition Clinton responded to with a pardon, ostensibly convinced that Rudolph Giuliani’s original indictment was flawed and that Rich’s actions warranted at most civil penalties.
Great work—thanks!
The problem they had was PROVING crime had been committed.
BUT! Guess who one of Clinton’s lawyers was???
None other than Peter Kadzik!!!
Must recuse.