-Caveat Lector-
February 16, 2001
White House won't hinder Rich probe
By Sean Scully
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The White House will not interfere with a criminal probe of
President Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc
Rich, despite President Bush's call to "move on" and not dwell on
the incident.
"I do not think it is the role of the president to dictate to
the independent Justice Department what investigations they
should or should not conduct," White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer said yesterday. "The president has expressed his
opinion when he was asked about the Marc Rich pardon."
U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of the Southern District of New
York confirmed yesterday that her office is conducting a criminal
probe of the Rich pardon, which Mr. Clinton issued only two hours
before he left office, without any of the customary Justice
Department review procedures that usually accompany pardons.
While Mrs. White refused to elaborate on the nature of the
probe, law-enforcement officials say she is looking into whether
personal gifts and political contributions by Mr. Rich's ex-wife,
Denise Rich, influenced Mr. Clinton's decision.
Mrs. White is also looking into whether the wealthy Mr.
Rich, who lives in Switzerland, might have helped Mrs. Rich
finance the gifts. Mrs. Rich is believed to have contributed more
than $1 million to Mr. Clinton's campaign, the Democratic
National Committee (DNC) and Mr. Clinton's presidential library
fund. She also gave furniture to the Clinton family.
While the president has unlimited power to grant pardons
under the Constitution, nothing exempts him from federal laws
against bribery.
In a statement released yesterday by his office, Mr. Clinton
denied any wrongdoing.
"As I have said repeatedly, I made the decision to pardon
Marc Rich based on what I thought was the right thing to do," Mr.
Clinton wrote. "Any suggestion that improper factors, including
fund raising for the DNC or my library, had anything to do with
the decision are absolutely false. I look forward to cooperating
with any appropriate inquiry."
Congressional investigators have been looking into the Rich
pardon as well, even though Congress has no power to interfere
with a presidential pardon.
The federal investigation will temporarily derail the
aggressive investigation envisioned by House Government Reform
Committee Chairman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican.
The committee's majority counsel, James Wilson, said it
would maintain a "respectful distance" so it wouldn't conflict
with Mrs. White's investigation.
That means the committee will likely back off demands to
have Mrs. Rich testify and, perhaps, issue subpoenas for bank
records and other documents. It will also delay a plan by the
committee to offer Mrs. Rich immunity in return for her
testimony, staff said.
But nevertheless, committee officials yesterday said they
will subpoena three of Mr. Clinton's closest White House aides �
former chief of staff John Podesta, lawyer Beth Nolan and adviser
Bruce Lindsey � for the next hearing on the pardon.
In addition, the panel will recall Rich attorney and former
White House counsel Jack Quinn for the same hearing, which has
been scheduled for March 1.
The committee also asked Mr. Clinton and Mr. Rich to release
all their aides and lawyers from any executive and
attorney-client privilege so they can testify freely.
"We're also asking Mr. Rich, if he has nothing to hide, to
let his counsel speak freely and that goes for the documents that
have been claimed by them as well," committee spokesman Mark
Corello told reporters.
On Monday, Mr. Bush told reporters that he is not interested
in questions about Mr. Rich, or other scandals surrounding the
former president. There were reports that Mr. Clinton's staffers
vandalized the White House on their way out, and Mr. Clinton
admits that he took furniture and gifts from the White House when
he left.
"My attitude is, all this business about the transition,
it's time to move on, it is," Mr. Bush said. "It's time to stay
looking forward, and that's what I'm going to do."
Mr. Fleischer said yesterday that Mr. Bush's attitude has
not changed in any way. But he said that does not mean Mr. Bush
is calling for a halt to Mrs. White's probe.
"One of the things that President Bush stressed in his
selection of the person to run the Department of Justice is it
should be a nonpolitical Department of Justice," Mr. Fleischer
said. "And when something is nonpolitical, that means you leave
investigative decisions to the professionals who make those
decisions."
Mr. Fleischer said Mr. Bush is not worried that a scandal
over the actions of his predecessor might in some way harm his
own power to grant pardons. There have been suggestions on
Capitol Hill to amend the Constitution to curtail the president's
broad pardon power, and some legal scholars say a bribery probe
into the Rich pardon could open up a narrow window for courts to
review presidential pardons for the first time in history.
The criminal investigation "is a separate issue," Mr.
Fleischer said. "It does not deal with the president's
prerogatives. The president's prerogatives to grant pardons are
given from the Constitution, and the president, President Bush,
still enjoys those powers undiluted."
Justice Department officials have said that Mr. Quinn did
not follow the regular process of applying for a pardon. Although
no president needs Justice Department permission before pardoning
someone, it is customary to ask for a thorough review before
making a decision.
In this case, Justice Department officials in charge of
reviewing pardon applications did not learn of the Rich pardon
until the early hours of Jan. 20, the day Mr. Clinton left
office. Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. testified at a
Senate hearing Wednesday that he had spoken with Mr. Quinn
several times in the preceding months but had never signed off on
any plan to pardon Mr. Rich.
While Mr. Holder did not criticize Mr. Clinton directly, he
did express frustration with the pardon and with the way the
matter was presented to him by White House officials and by Mr.
Quinn, who assured Mr. Clinton that he had "run it by" the
Justice Department for an opinion.
"I think 'running it by Justice' is a pretty good
description of what happened," Mr. Holder said.
Jerry Seper, reporting from Chicago, contributed to this article,
which is based in part on wire service reports.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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