Pardon Granted Outside of FBI Review
NEW YORK, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Roger Clinton, pardoned by his half- brother in the last hours of the Clinton presidency for a drug conviction in 1985, also came under subsequent FBI scrutiny several times, Newsweek has learned, including one episode in which he allegedly sought to play middleman in the purchase of presidential pardons.
No charges were ever brought, and a Clinton spokeswoman says the former president knew nothing of the FBI's interest in Roger. But the White House did make a point of bypassing the FBI and processing the Roger Clinton pardon directly through high-level Justice Department officials, Newsweek reports in the current issue.
The first probe began four years ago, when FBI agents interviewed Birmingham, Ala., businessman John Katopodis. According to FBI reports obtained by Newsweek, Arkansas lawyer Larry Wallace approached Katopodis and allegedly assured him that he could help get Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater to attend a conference that Katopodis was having to promote a new regional airport. But, in return, he wanted a job for Roger Clinton.
"President Clinton told him [Wallace] ... he was concerned about his 'baby' brother Roger," states one FBI interview with Katopodis. Wallace proposed that Roger receive a $35,000-a-month contract with a private foundation Katapodis helped run. Katopodis balked. "That's a pretty big consulting fee for someone who plays in a rock band," Katopodis told Newsweek. He says he later got calls from Roger Clinton himself, pressing for the contract.
The FBI wanted Kotopodis to set up a meeting with Roger Clinton where they would be secretly recorded. Katopodis said he "wasn't comfortable with the whole thing" and the case died, reports Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman in the February 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 19).
In a second case, last year, FBI agents looked into allegations that Roger Clinton sought payments for help in arranging pardons. The inquiry was dropped after Justice lawyers spotted a legal problem. Since Roger Clinton wasn't a federal official, it wasn't a crime to seek money for promising to help deliver action by the government.