-Caveat Lector-
Rich's Wife Denies Money-Pardon Link
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The ex-wife of pardoned financier Marc Rich
said Wednesday her political donations of more than $1 million to
Democrats since 1993 were unrelated to President Clinton's grant
of clemency during his last few hours in office.
Denise Rich said it was ''entirely appropriate'' for her to be
among those who petitioned Clinton to pardon the indicted
financier who has been living in Switzerland, where he fled in
the 1980s.
''The pardon given to Marc Rich will give him the opportunity to
visit his daughter's grave for the first time,'' Denise Rich said
in a statement through a spokesman, New York publicist Howard J.
Rubenstein.
''Her political fund-raising and charitable activities have
absolutely nothing to do with the pardon granted to her former
husband,'' the statement added.
The Riches' daughter, Gabrielle, was 27 when she died from
cancer in 1996, and ''Mr. Rich was unable to be with her during
her illness as well as when she died,'' the statement concluded.
''That was his choice'' not to return to the United States,
replied Marvin Smilon of the U.S. attorney's office in the
southern district of Manhattan, which obtained the indictment
against Rich in 1983, shortly after he fled the country. He was
accused of tax fraud and illegally buying oil from Iran during
the 1979 hostage crisis.
''That has been a controversial case because he was a fugitive,
never did go to trial, and so there are some questions about
that,'' Vice President Dick Cheney said on the Fox News Channel.
''I haven't personally looked at the case. ... The fact is, the
president does have that authority, and Bill Clinton exercised
it.''
In seeking the pardon, Rich's lawyers argued that the case
against him could not be brought now because of changes in the
law and that similar cases have been handled as regulatory
matters.
Prior to 1991, Denise Rich, a successful songwriter, made no
political donations to federal candidates for office, according
to Federal Election Commission records.
In 1991 and 1992, her political donations were just $3,000, most
of it given to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
But she donated over $1.1 million to the Democratic Party from
1993 through September; $7,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate
campaign committee and $20,000 to other Democratic candidates for
Congress, according to the FEC database.
She also donated a thousand dollars to Republican New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani's exploratory Senate campaign committee in 1999
and $2,000 to Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, another Republican, following
his Whitewater congressional investigation of the Clintons.
The pardon has drawn strong criticism.
Giuliani, a former Justice Department official and federal
prosecutor who withdrew from his Senate race against the first
lady, urged Congress this week to look into Clinton's pardon of
Rich.
Former New York City police commissioner Howard Safir told Gear
magazine that his office had been frustrated by Swiss authorities
in its pursuit of Rich.
''The Swiss police told me that if we did anything to try to
snatch Marc Rich from Switzerland, they'd arrest us,'' said
Safir.
U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said her office had been
''bypassed'' by the Clinton White House as the president's aides
considered the arguments of Rich, his indicted business partner
and several other defendants charged in White's jurisdiction, the
southern district of Manhattan.
''We were totally unaware that pardons for Marc Rich'' and his
business partner ''were even under consideration,'' said White.
Rich was a fugitive and ''I have a hard time seeing how he
qualifies for a pardon,'' said Dick Thornburgh, who served as
attorney general during the Reagan and Bush administrations.
Thornburgh also objected because Clinton administration
officials ''bypassed the normal process and kept the application
secret from the law enforcement officials who brought the
charges.''
AP-NY-01-24-01 1939EST
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
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