Report: Meeting between Clinton, Rich backers focus of pardon probe

Miami, Florida,, Sunday, March 25, 2001

Anti-Defamation League chief details advice on Rich pardon

BY ROBERT O'HARROW JR. Washington Post Service

WASHINGTON -- A few months after accepting a $100,000 pledge from fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich, Anti-Defamation League chief Abraham Foxman suggested early last year that Rich reach out to his former wife for help in winning a presidential pardon, Foxman has disclosed.

Over dinner in Paris last February, Foxman told Rich aide Avner Azulay that he had heard Denise Rich donated lavishly to Democratic causes and was a personal friend of President Clinton. "My suggestion then was, why don't you reach out to Denise Rich and see if she had changed her mind about Marc Rich, and if she had to see if she would approach the president," Foxman recalled Friday in a meeting with reporters.

Foxman's account of that conversation -- coupled with an e-mail obtained by congressional investigators that references Foxman's idea -- shows that Rich supporters contemplated approaching Clinton months sooner than earlier acknowledged.
A month after that dinner, Azulay wrote a Rich attorney suggesting sending Denise Rich "on a 'personal' mission to No.1 with a well-prepared script." No.1 was later identified as Clinton.

Foxman commented Friday in the first explanation of his role in the Rich pardon since it was disclosed in January that he had written a letter to Clinton in December urging clemency, a letter Foxman now says he regrets sending.

Federal authorities in New York are examining whether any laws were violated as supporters of Rich and scores of other applicants sought pardons from Clinton at the end of his term. Congressional investigators are conducting their own probe and Foxman said he voluntarily answered their questions Monday.

Rich was pardoned by Clinton 17 years after he left the country ahead of federal charges that he cheated the government out of $48 million and traded with the enemy.

Foxman is the longtime national director of B'nai B'rith's ADL, a leading foe of anti-Semitism. He said that although his name appears in several e-mails circulated among organizers of the Rich pardon effort he was not an organizer and knew few of the details.

Foxman said he has known Marc Rich for the past 15 years. Rich had previously donated $150,000 to fund several ADL anti-prejudice education programs. On several occasions, including once in Romania, Rich and his associates also had worked with the ADL to help Jewish communities threatened by turmoil or anti-Semitism, Foxman said.

He also dined with Rich several times in Switzerland. They came from neighboring towns in what is now Belarus and occasionally conversed in Yiddish. "We had lunch. We had dinner," Foxman said. "We talked about the world. We talked about literature."
Rich aide Avner Azulay called Foxman in the fall of 1999 and offered another $100,000 for ADL, Foxman said. In January another Rich aide set up the dinner meeting in Paris to discuss Rich's legal problems.

Foxman said the money the ADL received last year from Rich's foundation played little or no role in his decision to write the letter to Clinton urging a pardon for Rich. He said

Marc Rich was pardoned by Clinton 17 years after he left the country.

Foxman said that $100,000 represents a fraction of the ADL's $50 million [annual] budget.

"There's nothing dirty or ugly about it," Foxman said. "The fact is he did give money and there were no strings attached."

He acknowledged Rich's contributions and assistance helped to capture his attention. "The guy who gives you $100 doesn't get as much attention as the guy who gives you $10,000," he said.

Clinton Discussed Pardon With Fundraiser
By Timothy P. Carney

In considering his pardon of millionaire fugitive Marc Rich, President Bill Clinton did not consult the Justice Department pardon office, but he did confer with the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC’s) finance chairman–intensifying the question of whether the pardon was a quid pro quo for campaign contributions and personal gifts given to the Democratic Party and the Clintons by Rich’s ex-wife Denise.

On February 8, in the course of its first hearing on the Rich pardon, the House Government Reform Committee released a set of e-mails that had been sent back and forth between some of the parties involved in trying to get Rich a pardon.

A Jan. 10, 2001, e-mail from Avner Azulay, managing director of Rich’s foundation, to Jack Quinn, Rich’s counsel (formerly Clinton’s White House counsel), linked the pardon effort to DNC Finance Chairman Beth Dozoretz. In the e-mail, Azulay said that Clinton had contacted Dozoretz to discuss the proposed Rich pardon.

In fact, Clinton placed a call to Dozoretz about the pardon when she was in Aspen skiing–with Denise Rich.

In the call, according to Azulay’s e-mail, Clinton revealed that he was trying to convince his White House counsels to agree to the pardon, not vice versa, as would be the norm. "DR [Denise Rich] called from aspen," wrote Azulay. "Her friend B [Beth Dozoretz]–who is with her–got a call from potus [President Clinton]–who said he was impressed by JQ’s [Jack Quinn’s] last letter and that he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH counsels."

Clinton affected an entirely different posture in public last week. "As far as I knew, Marc Rich and his wife were Republicans," Clinton told hecklers at a speech. "The worst thing in the entire aftermath of the Marc Rich pardon was when people said I pardoned him simply because I had a relationship."

This raised the question: What kind of relationship, and with whom?

The President could not have had a relationship with Marc Rich. He’s been out of the country since 1983.

Clinton did have a "relationship" with Denise Rich, but how extensive that relationship was, and how much of it was directed specifically at getting a pardon for Marc Rich, remain subjects for the committee’s investigation.

Federal Election Commission records show that Mrs. Rich has contributed just over $1 million to the Democrats since Clinton was first elected in 1992.

USA Today and Daily Variety both reported in December 1993 that Mrs. Rich was among four people to attend both a special cocktail party and costly dinner with the President in Hollywood. Clinton also included Mrs. Rich in the small U.S. delegation that attended the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

In September 1998, both Bill and Hillary Clinton attended a breakfast at Rich’s New York apartment.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R.-Ind.) has requested the records of when Denise Rich and Jack Quinn visited the White House.

That there was a money trail running from Mrs. Rich to the Clintons is clear, but Burton is probing its depth.

In addition to political contributions, Mrs. Rich gave $10,000 to the Clinton’s legal defense fund. She also gave the Clintons two end-tables and chairs worth over $7,300. She gave President Clinton a saxophone. And, according to her lawyer, she also gave an "enormous" amount to the Clinton presidential library–a reported $450,000.

Burton has subpoenaed the library’s foundation for the records of Rich’s gifts and pledges, a subpoena that Clinton’s impeachment lawyer David Kendall is strongly fighting.

After being briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on February 6, Burton also requested that the agency declassify documents relating to Rich or his partner Pincus Green. Burton also has asked the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to produce any records on Rich or Green.

Further, Burton has subpoenaed Mrs. Rich’s bank records, primarily to see if any of the gifts or contributions she made to the Clintons were actually funded by her ex-husband.

Mrs. Rich has invoked the 5th Amendment in refusing to answer any of the committee’s questions.

Burton has requested that the Justice Department immunize Mrs. Rich so that she can be compelled to testify, a request Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft seems willing to grant. Meanwhile, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee began its own investigation of the pardon last Wednesday.

© Human Events, 2001

As far as I knew, Marc Rich and his wife were Republicans

Does anybody doubt that Bill Clinton knew in great detail who had contributed money to him, and how much they had contributed? I have no doubt that this was his primary concern, and that he kept close tabs on it.

OK, maybe this is a dumb question, but............

Is it illegal for the President to sell pardons? Isn't he empowered to pardon anyone at any time for any reason?

Is it illegal for the President to sell pardons?

Yes.

Isn't he empowered to pardon anyone at any time for any reason?

Yes.

Is it illegal for the President to sell pardons?
Yes.
Isn't he empowered to pardon anyone at any time for any reason?
Yes.

But I am sure that, de facto and de jure, the former trumps the latter.

Maybe "for any reason" does not include "Because the guy paid me to."

The President's power of pardon is absolute.

But, that does not mean a President is immune from criminal actions puruant to bribery, theft-in-office, RICO, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum.

GW, via Ashcroft, can press hard on this. Phooey on them if they don't. The Clintons belong in PRISON.

You might find this interesting....it's quite long but worth the read.
http://www.mishalov.com/Clinton_IndefensiblePardon.html

It is a well known principle that it can never be a duty of a public official to commit crimes. Therefore, if Clinton did commit such crimes, he was committing them in his individual capacity and as such; he and his assoiciates clearly violated several provisions of the federal RICO statutes.

Flash ! They've both been captured and hauled in !

heh heh !

Nice try, but I do not believe the pardon was the reason for the friendship between Denise and Bubba... nor do I believe Denise made friends with Clinton and then was moved to help Marc Rich.

Denise Rich was sent by Marc Rich to spy on the Bubba's plans and efforts with the middle east "peace" negotiations. He supplied ALL the money she donated to Clinton and his causes. She was to gather insider info to send to Rich so he could make even more money as an information broker to both sides.
The pardon was just an afterthought to cover Denise if she ever came under suspicion for worse motives....

What do you mean "nice try"? I only posted what I found. You have no more idea about what was going on than anyone else.

I meant "nice try" to the writer... not to you. sheeeesh

DOZORETZ, CUOMO, DENIABILITY
Source: MSNBC
Published: 3/14/01 Author: Jeanette Walls

Andrew Cuomo, (who withdrew his candidacy last week) the New York gubernatorial hopeful, raised eyebrows last weekend when he was spotted having dinner with embattled fund-raiser Beth Dozoretz, whose contributions to the Clinton Library have been under scrutiny in connection with the Marc Rich pardon scandal. The two were having a cozy tete-a-tete at the ritzy Georgetown restaurant Café Milano on Saturday.

“I didn’t have any meeting with her,” Cuomo tells The Scoop. “I saw her in a restaurant. It was a social gathering. Just a conversation. There were other friends there.” Cuomo, however, provided no names. When asked if Dozoretz would be helping raise bucks for his bid for governor, Cuomo replied, “I don’t think she’s going to be doing any fund raising for a while.”

“I don’t think she’s going to be doing any fund raising for a while.”

She might have to. Bail can be very expensive.

Heh,heh,heh....good one.

Is it illegal for the President to sell pardons?

Not Democratic Party Presidents, the RINOs in the US Senate said it is OK for a 'RAT Prez to do anything he wants, anytime he wants including the sale of nuclear missiles to enemies of the US, pardoning bombing terrorists who have murdered and maimed, etc. etc. etc..

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