-Caveat Lector- NYTimes February 10, 2001 Documents Show a Complex Campaign to Win a Pardon By ALISON LEIGH COWAN WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — Lawyers and advisers to the financier Marc Rich joined his former wife in choreographing a complex legal and political campaign to win a last-minute pardon from President Bill Clinton, whose own legal advisers opposed the pardon, newly released documents and interviews show. The effort, which drew in operatives in Israel and Switzerland as well as a Washington team that included a former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, culminated in Mr. Clinton's granting a pardon that has raised questions of improper influence. The Rich pardon was the subject of a confrontational Congressional hearing on Thursday, with more hearings planned. A spokesman for the House Committee on Government Reform said today that the panel would issue subpoenas next week for the bank records of Denise Rich and the list of donors to the Clinton library after Ms. Rich's lawyer disclosed that Ms. Rich had contributed to the library. "In every investigation of this sort where money is involved or contributions are involved," the spokesman, Mark Corallo, said, "the only way to establish any kind of causal relationship is to look at bank records." Ms. Rich, who refused to testify at the hearing and cited her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, played a larger role in the effort than previously known, the documents show, although much of it was done at the urging of her former husband's lawyers. Besides writing at least one letter to Mr. Clinton in support of her ex-husband's pardon, and following up with a phone call, Ms. Rich also buttonholed Mr. Clinton about the pardon at a White House party on Dec. 20 after wresting him away from Barbra Streisand, a witness said. Ms. Rich and her friend Beth Dozoretz, the former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a close friend and big financial supporter of both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, then monitored pardon developments together from Ms. Rich's home in Aspen, Colo. According to e-mail messages released on Thursday by the House committee, Ms. Dozoretz spoke to Mr. Clinton on Jan. 10 about the pardon on the telephone and told Ms. Rich while they were in Colorado that Mr. Clinton "wants to do it." One hitch, she reported, was that he had to do "all possible to turn around" the White House counsels who were opposed. Ms. Rich's lawyer has also told the government committee that she gave an "enormous sum of money" to the Clinton library. A Democratic fund-raiser today amended an earlier statement to say that she pledged $450,000 in three transactions between July 1998 and May 2000. The stacks of time-stamped e-mail messages yield a rare glimpse into a process with little oversight. Presidential pardons are irrevocable and can be awarded without explanation. The e-mail messages show that Mr. Rich's allies were taking no chances. In trying to persuade Mr. Clinton to proceed over the objections of influential aides, they armed him with testimonials from public figures and worked up until the last minute to come up with more connections to make the point, sometimes with hilarious fervor. In one e-mail message, dated Dec. 30, Mr. Rich's United States lawyers ask whether Leah Rabin, the widow of the former Israeli prime minister, might be approachable. Avner Azulay, Mr. Rich's point man in Israel, responded: "Not a bad idea. The problem is how do we contact her? She died last November." In another flurry, Robert Fink, Mr. Rich's longtime lawyer in New York, reported on Jan. 2 that he heard that the pardon request was being taken seriously inside the White House but lacked someone inside eager to push it. "We need a rabbi among the people in the counsel's office," the e- mail message reads. Mr. Azulay, having spent the previous six weeks compiling a book of letters from Israeli and American Jewish leaders, took the request literally and responded: "I don't understand the comment about the rabbi. Our book is full of rabbis. Could you get more specific?" Much of the strategy was reflected in a Nov. 19 memorandum from Mr. Fink to the other members of the team: Jack Quinn, the Washington insider whom Mr. Rich hired nearly two years ago; Kitty Behan, another of Mr. Rich's lawyers in Washington; Gershon Kekst, a public relations executive in New York; and Mr. Azulay, the former intelligence operative who runs Mr. Rich's foundation in Israel. The memorandum calls for finding someone "of high moral authority" to press the case, a person who turns out to be Elie Wiesel, and discusses the "need for secrecy." It also contains reminders to consider "maximizing use of D.R.," an apparent reference to Ms. Rich, and "How to deal with P.G.," a reference to Pincus Green, Mr. Rich's longtime partner who was also pardoned. By Dec. 27, however, the strategists were considering severing Mr. Green from the petition if it would give Mr. Clinton more of an ability to approve Mr. Rich's pardon as an "individual humanitarian act" rather than a disposition of the pair's prickly legal problems. But two of the lawyers concluded that the suggestion had come too late. "Delinking now would be hard," they write. Mr. Rich's lawyers seemed particularly concerned that Mr. Clinton's lawyers in the White House would block the pardon. So far, Beth Nolan and Bruce Lindsey have not publicly explained their positions, but both are likely to be witnesses called by Mr. Burton's committee. On Dec. 25, between notations that Mr. Wiesel and Shimon Peres had both weighed in with the White House in mid-December, Mr. Quinn told his co-counsels that "the greatest danger lies with the lawyers. I have worked them hard and I am hopeful that E. Holder will be helpful to us," a reference to Eric H. Holder Jr., the deputy attorney general in the Justice Department. Mr. Holder was the only official in the department who seemed to have any knowledge of the pardon, and yet he failed to consult the prosecutors in New York who had brought the case against Mr. Rich and Mr. Green 17 years ago. The day before the pardon was signed, a top White House official called Arthur Levitt, the departing chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to ask about Mr. Green, Mr. Levitt recalled today. Mr. Levitt, who would not specify the caller, said Mr. Green's name did not register until he was reminded that Mr. Green was Mr. Rich's partner. Mr. Levitt, in turn, consulted his enforcement staff and reported back that the cases against the two men were out of his jurisdiction. "I volunteered that I felt this was wrong, and he opined that it was wrong and someone who was a fugitive should not be pardoned," Mr. Levitt said. Thinking that the official's obvious skepticism on the matter meant it would not advance, he said regretfully that he did not call his counterparts at the other agencies. "I felt if he was against it, it wouldn't happen." ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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