Posted on 12/06/2005 10:28:41 AM PST by freedomdefender
Though Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., hammered indicted ex-Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, saying his alleged lying to a grand jury was "simply reprehensible," connections exist between the senator's husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the central figure in the CIA-leak probe via Marc Rich, the man who received an 11th-hour pardon from Clinton and who was represented by attorney Libby.
The Concord, N.H., Monitor points out Libby represented Rich during the '80s and '90s. Rich was the target of a 65-count indictment for various crimes, including trading with Iran amid the American hostage crisis and tax evasion. He was convicted in absentia on 51 counts. Libby reportedly collected $2 million in fees from Rich during the time he represented the financier, who fled the country rather than face the charges.
Around the time of Clinton's 2001 pardon of Rich, his wife, Denise, donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
While Libby denied having any involvement in the pardon, the Monitor reported, he did call Rich Jan 22, 2001, to congratulate him on his good fortune.
"Libby's powerful presence inside the White House – his title was assistant to George W. Bush as well as chief of staff to Cheney – might help explain why the incoming Bush administration failed to pursue obvious threads of corruption trailing out of President Clinton's pardon of Rich and other dubious figures," the paper conjectured.
Some see Hillary Clinton's denouncement of Libby as more than ironic, since Independent Counsel Robert Ray accused her of giving false testimony during his probe of the White House travel office. In addition, her husband was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives based in part on a plea bargain deal he made with Ray that included the admission he gave false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
They all sleep in the same beds.
ping
Did I read that a number of big-name conservatives started up a Libby legal defense fund? If that's true, it's disappointing. The administration is better off rid of this smelly character. If he needs money to defend himself against perjury charges, why doesn't he approach his friend Marc Rich?
THE GOP has shown it's ass again and again.
Libby-marc rich's boy. Illegal immigration and open borders, expanding fed gov and out of control spending
now talk of raising taxes..read my lips deja vu.
Disgusted with them all in DC. Bush most of all.
I missed that. Haven't heard talk, from the GOP, of raising taxes.
Oh for cripes sake, Libby was frigging lawyer, he was defending a client in court, get a grip. Lawyers represent all kinds of criminals, it doesn't mean they are joined in criminal enterprises like Hillary and Marc Rich are.
Yes, but a lawyer/mouthpice for a traitor like Rich doesn't belong in a sensitive White House position. Not in a Republican administration. As the article said, Libby's presence in the White House might be one reason the Bush folks didn't pursue the possible corruption in CLinton's pardon of Rich. Libby phoned Rich to congratulate him on the pardon -- it would be strange for Libby and his administration colleagues to follow up by investigating that pardon, wouldn't it.
Bush and Cheney would do well not to hire any more "mouthpieces" for criminal scum.
Do you really think there's so much of a difference between D's and R's? The character of a person who reaches a high office in government is basically the same...the lines they use to get their is the only thing that's different. I'm truly starting to hate them all. This Duke Cunninham thing really had a severe effect on me. Of all the people I thought was different, and he was the worst. And maybe not the worst, and that's really scary. They're all in it for themselves and their own personl enrichment. I'm totally convinced there are but a few who truly care about this Country.
You may be right. I'm moving in your direction -- the Cunningham thing shocked me, too, and is making me reevaluate -- but I don't want to be overtaken by cynicism just yet. I still want to believe the party of Lincoln is different.
How about this: I have met Prescott Bush. He is the President's uncle. The President has hired Donald Rumsfeld. Donald Rumsfeld flew to Iraq in the early 80's and met Saddam Hussein.
WND Headline: Rodney King and Saddam Hussein connected via the Bush Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But when her husband lied to a grand jury, that was ok, right?
Still, I'm disappointed to hear about Libby representing Marc Rich.
It's too much to say they're directly connected to each other. But they're both directly connected to traitor Marc Rich. Rich gave Hillary bucks after or before his pardon. Libby defended Rich and congratulated on his pardon. However you draw the lines between them, they're all three of them sleazeballs.
You can do better than "disappointed." THat's a Daschle weasel-word. You ought to be disgusted. That's what I am. Maybe I'm "disappointed" that Cheney and/or Bush hired him -- but "disgusted" works there, too.
I do not appreciate being compared to Tom Daschle. I will assume that you were smiling when you typed that...
Libby supporters announced formation of the "Libby Legal Defense Trust" to raise money. Among those signing on to help are: former Clinton administration
CIA Director James Woolsey, former Republican Sens. Fred Thompson and Alan Simpson, and former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp.
The versimilitude is so precious isn't it?
Clinton's CIA director is to help Libby who lied about a CIA operative.
Wonder who thought up that little gem.
Wait. There's more.
Ol' Scooter Libby was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award in 1993....... from the Clinton Administration.
Libby's spouse is Harriet Grant, a Democrat, who was General Counsel to the Judiciary Committee when it was chaired by Joe Biden (when Dems were in the majority). Mrs Libby was probably part of the Democrat attack machine that slimed Clarence Thomas during his nomination hearings. The Libby's dinnertime conversation must have been interesting.
It's not at all reassuring to authentic conservatives that Libby and spouse were hostile to the social conservative agenda, while Libby was holding power in a conservative admin.
Libby held three titles in the Bush admin: (1) Cheney's chief of staff, (2) national security adviser to the vice president, and (3) assistant to President George W. Bush -- a sign of Libby's broad influence.
thanks. I forgot about the Biden connection. How did this guy get into the Bush Administration?? Mind-boggling.
Looks like, in some circles, Libby's connections especially to Marc Rich gave him the Washington bona fides and entree, enhanced his job prospects, made Libby Most Likely to Succeed and largely immune to criticism.
Libby held three titles in the Bush admin: (1) VP chief of staff, (2) national security adviser to the VP, and (3) assistant to GWB -- a sign of Libby's broad influence, and was apparently the go-to guy as VP Cheney's top aide, in shaping admin policies.
A "specialist in national security," Libby had logged long hours in his office near the West Wing of the White House, steeping himself in subjects ike "counterterrorism, bioweapons defense and energy policy."
Mr and Mrs Libby's dinnertime conversation with guests must have been interesting.
ROTFL! I thought lying to a grand jury was okay with the Clintons!
"I thought lying to a grand jury was okay with the Clintons!"
Lying to the entire country is okay with the Clintons.
I agree with you that representing Rich doesn't mean that Libby is some kind of criminal himself.
Congratulating Rich was ill-advised and doesn't say much for Libby, but this article makes a bit of a stretch in equating that with Libby being "connected" to Hillary. It would be a "connection" if they all belonged to some specific social group in a significant way (such as being officers or something like that), or if they had a common financial interest or were mutually involved in a specific financial exchange, or something to that effect. But the only connection mentioned in this article is the phone. I see this as raising questions about Libby's character, but not as evidence of a connection to Hillary.
You're right, it doesn't make Libby a criminal. Mob lawyers aren't criminals, they're lawyers who represent scum. Libby is such a lawyer, he had a right to represent a traitor (Rich), but he shouldn't have been in the Bush administration. Just as mob lawyers shouldn't be in the Bush administration.
Talk about understatement of the year. It should have disqualified Libby from any post in the Bush administration.
You can say the same thing about a lawyer for the Mafia. Even the Mafia deserve lawyers. But mob lawyers shouldn't have a role in a Republican administration. And the lawyer for a traitor - Rich, who traded with Iran when they held US hostages - doesn't belong in a Bush administration., If Bush and Cheney had understood this, they could have saved themselves a lot of grief. Libby's alleged lying to the FBI and to the Grand Jury is a Clintonian exercise - something that has embarrassed BUsh and Cheney. They never should have hired this creep, LEt the Democrats hire Marc Rich's cronies. republicans should keep their distance from traitors and from traitors' lawyers.
Who is supporting him?
IT was wrong when CLintonites did it. And it was wrong if, as the federal prosecutor claims, Libby did it. Libby is a creep who belonged in the Clinton administration (Where he worked, by the way), and not in a Republican administration
bump
Libby supported Rich. He was his lawyer, and he congratulated Rich when Clinton corruptly pardoned him. If that isn't support, then the word has no meaning.
BS. Utter tripe.
WND sucks.
He most certainly did not; grow up; Libby was his lawyer.
Gawd, you are easily led, aren't you?
Libby also went before Rep Burton's committee to offer support for Rich. Libby's testamony took the wind out of the Republicans' efforts to investigate the corruption behind the pardon. At the time, many conservative commentators, including Byron York in National Review, castigated Libby, saying that he'd done the GOP great harm by sticking up for Rich. That's what I call "support" for Marc Rich. Libby - who worked in the Clinton Administration - disqualified himself for a job with Bush and Cheney when he spoke out in defense of traitor Marc Rich.
You obviiously don't know very much about the issue. Google the old articles about how Libby went before Burton's committee and spoke in support of Rich, and in support of Clinton's pardon of Rich. It was disgusting - as many conservative commentators noted at the time.
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/yorkprint030201.html
Bad Night for the GOP
Lewis Libby comes to Marc Rich’s defense.
by Byron York
March 2, 2001 8:55 a.m.
Lewis Libby, a top Republican lawyer who is now vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told the House Government Reform Committee last night that he agreed with much of Bill Clinton's widely discredited op-ed article outlining the former president's reasons for pardoning fugitive tax evader Marc Rich.
In a session that stretched late into the evening, Libby, who represented Rich for several years ending in the spring of 2000, told the committee he believes Rich is not guilty of the tax and racketeering charges filed by federal prosecutors in 1983. Libby also said he "quite possibly" would have considered applying for a pardon for Rich had Rich asked him to do so.
Libby, who said his law firms collected as much as $2 million for representing Rich, testified he had nothing to do with the application that led to clemency for Rich. He declined to say whether he approved of the decision to pardon Rich, but he conceded that he called Rich on January 22, two days after the pardon, to "congratulate him on having reached a result that he had sought for a long time." Libby testified he made the call from his home to make clear that he was calling in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of the Bush administration.
In a particularly damaging exchange with Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski , Libby agreed that Rich might be characterized as a traitor for fleeing the country and renouncing his American citizenship. Kanjorski asked Libby why he would call a traitor to congratulate him on his good fortune in winning a pardon. Visibly uncomfortable, Libby had no answer.
For Republicans, Libby's testimony was a sour endnote to what had been a long day of revelations that made President Clinton's decision to pardon Rich seem even more inexplicable than previously thought.
Early in the day, Republicans revealed that former deputy White House counsel Cheryl Mills, who played a prominent role in Clinton's impeachment defense and now serves as a trustee for the Clinton-library foundation, took part in a discussion with the president about the Rich pardon the night Clinton made his last-minute decision. Mills left White House employment in the fall of 1999. Several witnesses at the hearing — former White House chief of staff John Podesta, former White House counsel Beth Nolan, and former top Clinton adviser Bruce Lindsey — testified that Mills was often at the White House in the year and a half after she left to become a senior vice president at Oxygen Media, a television and internet firm devoted to women's programming.
"She continued to be a trusted adviser to the president," Nolan told the committee. Nolan said that in the last weeks of the administration, Mills was at the White House frequently for end-of-term parties and other events. On the chaotic evening of January 19, Clinton called several advisers to the Oval Office to discuss his plans to pardon a number of people who had been convicted or pled guilty in the Whitewater, Mike Espy, and Henry Cisneros independent-counsel investigations.
"I invited Ms. Mills to join that conversation," said Bruce Lindsey, former close adviser to the president, citing Mills's expertise on independent-counsel issues. Lindsey testified that at the meeting, Clinton raised the Rich pardon issue and that Mills took part in that discussion, too. "I do not believe she took a position on it," Lindsey said, referring to the Rich case.
But it appears that Mills's involvement was greater than simply participating in one meeting. Republicans on the committee also revealed that Roger Adams, the pardons attorney in the Justice Department, has told the committee he called the White House to discuss the Rich matter and ended up discussing it with Mills, who spoke authoritatively on the matter. Adams was apparently somewhat bewildered that a former White House employee would be involved in pardon discussions.
In addition, the committee released a January 5, 2001 e-mail from Robert Fink, a lawyer for Marc Rich in New York, to two other members of the Rich team. "Here is the letter Jack [former White House counsel Jack Quinn] just sent to the White House," Fink wrote. "As you may notice his secretary said that Jack sent copies to Beth Nolan, Bruce Lindsey and Cheryl Mills. April said they have clearance to deliver it to the WH [White House], so it will get there this evening, presumably before POTUS leaves for Camp David." Quinn told the committee that he brought Mills into the case in an effort to help convince Clinton to pardon Rich.
Earlier in the hearing, former Democratic National Committee finance chair Beth Dozoretz appeared briefly before the committee. Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays read to her from a January 10, 2001 e-mail from an associate of Rich's to Quinn. "DR [Rich's former wife Denise] called from Aspen," the e-mail began. "Her friend B [Dozoretz] — who is with her — got a call today from potus — who said he was impressed by JQ's [Quinn's] last letter and that he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH counsels."
Shays asked Dozoretz why she discussed the Rich case with the president. "Upon the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer that question," Dozoretz said, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Shays asked whether she would refuse to answer all questions on those grounds. She said yes.
Georgia Republican Bob Barr asked Dozoretz whether she would at least tell the committee whether she intends to cooperate with the criminal investigation being conducted by federal prosecutors in New York. She declined to answer that, too.
On another topic, the committee released information casting doubt on one of Quinn's main arguments in favor of the Rich pardon. On February 8, Quinn testified that he was frustrated at the "intransigence" of federal prosecutors in New York who, Quinn said, were unwilling to discuss the case with Rich. Quinn also testified that the prosecutors' use of RICO, the racketeering statute, was the "sledgehammer" that resulted in Rich's decision not to return to the United States to face charges.
Now it appears that prosecutors were not as inflexible as Quinn contended. In his opening statement, committee chairman Dan Burton announced that in 1999 the government offered to drop the RICO charges against Rich if he would return to the U.S. to face trial. E-mails between members of the Rich team indicate that prosecutors also agreed to set a bail for Rich in advance so he would not have to worry about being incarcerated before trial. Rich refused the government's offer.
The committee also released information suggesting that the campaign to win a pardon for Rich began significantly earlier than was previously known. The idea was referred to in a February 10, 2000 e-mail from Avner Azulay, one of Rich's top advisers to Robert Fink, the New York lawyer. The e-mail discussed strategies to follow in the case and concluded, "The present impasse leaves us with only one other option: the unconventional approach which has not yet been tried and which I have been proposing all along." That "unconventional approach" was apparently the pardon initiative.
The next month, on March 18, 2000, Azulay again e-mailed Fink. "We are reverting to the idea discussed with Abe [Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman]," the e-mail said, "which is to send DR [Denise Rich] on a 'personal' mission to NO1. with a well-prepared script." Congressional investigators believe "NO1." refers to the president.
Quinn testified that he had no recollection of any such discussion, but he did not rule out the idea of early pardon discussions. "It is entirely possible that…everyone of us involved in this thought out loud with each other," Quinn testified. "It is possible that we were involved in a conversation where someone said, 'You know, we're going to have to try a pardon one of these days.'"
Finally, committee lawyers are preparing to examine the donor records of the Clinton library. On Wednesday, Burton's lawyers saw a list of approximately 150 people and companies who have given or pledged at least $5,000 to the library. The next step, which will take place today, will be for them to see the amounts of those donations and the dates they were given.
Because of their long and painstakingly detailed investigation of the campaign finance scandal, experts on Burton's staff are familiar with the names of most people who have given large sums of money to the Democratic party and Clinton-related causes over the years. Congressional sources say there are some unfamiliar names on the library donor list. Investigators will want to find out who those people are and whether they gave their own money to the library — or whether they served as fronts for the donations of others.
It is you who is showing you don't know much about the issue.
He did NOT "speak in support of" Rich. He stated that he thought the case against Rich wasn't founded in facts according to the IRS laws. It was HIS opinion -- his WORK PRODUCT.
And I notice you conveniently are leaving out the part of his testimony where he called Rich a traitor; I guess you have to to try to make you ill-founded point.
That's a LEGAL OPINION -- he's NOT supporting Rich; stop saying it; it makes you look silly.
Libby made a long distance call to congratulate Traitor Marc Rich on his corrupt criminal Clinton pardon. That's a fact, Jack. You can't spin it. It's really something that you want to defend this creepy Marc Rich crony. Sorry I can't go with you there.
None of whom is the president and some of whom may yet be turned.
I don't see any tax increases being proposed. But this thread is about Libby, the crony and mouthpiece for Hillary-Bill chum Marc Rich. Rich is a traitor and Libby is his mouthpice. Good riddance to Libby -and I WON'T be contributing to his "legal defense fund" Why can't he just ask his buddy Marc Rich for some money? I'm sure Rich still has some of the money he got from IRan (when they were holding AMeircan hostages)
Secondly, nobody is asking you to ante up any money for Libby.
Thirdly, your pathetic emotional tirades are worthy of FU; not FR!
And last but not least, I replied to a post, which happens to be what we do here on FR...on case you hadn't noticed. ;^)
Maybe, but what's reported in this WND article -- that Libby was lawyer for traitor Marc Rich -- is true. WND didn't make it up.
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