-Caveat Lector-
February 7, 2001
Politics & Policy
Connected Democrats Won Pardons From Clinton; Hearings Gear Up
By PHIL KUNTZ, ALIX FREEDMAN, JOHN HARWOOD and GARY FIELDS
Staff Reporters
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
One of the people pardoned by Bill Clinton before he left office
was a convicted drug conspirator whose family knows the former
president, donated more than $40,000 to Democrats and hired a
former White House lawyer to lobby for the pardon because they
wanted "entree."
Charles Wilfred Morgan III of Little Rock, Ark., spent three
years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the
1980s. His lawyer, former associate White House counsel William
H. Kennedy III, is the latest example in a growing list of
well-connected Democrats who successfully sought pardons and
sentence commutations on behalf of others from Mr. Clinton.
Among the successful advocates are another former White House
lawyer, a former attorney general, a top House Democrat and
former Vice President Al Gore's Miami point man in the Florida
recount. Mr. Kennedy, after leaving the White House in the
mid-1990s, returned to his former employment at the Rose Law Firm
in Little Rock, where former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
had worked before coming to Washington.
Mr. Morgan's stepfather, George Billingsley, is a longtime
Clinton supporter whose family has contributed $42,200 to
Democrats in the past decade.
He says Mr. Clinton once stayed at his home years ago, and Mr.
Billingsley once attended a Christmas party at the White House.
Mr. Billingsley said he never approached Mr. Clinton about
pardoning his stepson and doesn't know if Mr. Kennedy approached
the president directly, though he added that Mr. Kennedy
traveled to Washington while working on the case. Mr. Kennedy
declined to comment on his activities until he could get
permission from his client, who couldn't be reached.
Mr. Morgan's pardon also was supported by two
Republican-appointed federal judges, including the one who
sentenced him, H. Franklin Waters, and a local deputy sheriff.
But Mr. Billingsley said Mr. Kennedy was hired for the case
because "it's always important to have ... somebody who knows
somebody" and the family wanted someone with "entree" to the
White House.
"We got the pardon, and I give Mr. Kennedy a lot of credit," Mr.
Billingsley says, adding that the lawyer was paid $25,000 over
four years for his work. As for the family's contributions to
Democrats, he adds: "You'd like to think ... that it had some
influence."
Pardon recipient Salim "Sandy" Lewis, a takeover speculator who
pleaded guilty to stock-price manipulation in the late 1980s,
also had well-connected lawyers: Nicholas Katzenbach, attorney
general in the Johnson administration, and New Jersey lawyer
Douglas Eakeley, an old classmate of Mr. Clinton's at Oxford and
Yale Law School. "It may be that [the application] got to the
White House sooner than others, but I think that the merits of
the case made it," said Mr. Eakeley, citing controversy at the
time of the original indictment over whether Mr. Lewis should
have been prosecuted.
House and Senate investigators are gearing up for hearings
starting Thursday on Mr. Clinton's most controversial pardon
recipient -- financier Marc Rich, who was represented by former
White House counsel Jack Quinn. "You don't want the perception
out there that if you have the right friends and the right
connections you can get a pardon," said Mark Corallo, House
Government Reform Committee spokesman.
Clinton spokesman Jake Siewert said the principal considerations
for the president were the facts of each case, not the lawyers:
"We tried to review as many [pardon applications] as we could,
and we tried to judge them on the merits."
Another prominent attorney involved in helping clients win the
11th-hour reprieves was Reid Weingarten. The Washington-based
lawyer ran the Justice Department's Public Integrity Division in
the mid-1980s and is a close friend of Eric Holder, deputy
attorney general during the Clinton administration. Mr.
Weingarten helped persuade former President Clinton to cut in
half the 11-year prison sentence of Harvey Weinig, a lawyer who
was convicted of money laundering in a conspiracy involving the
Cali drug cartel in the mid-1990s -- over the objections of Mary
Jo White, U.S. attorney in New York. Mr. Weingarten couldn't be
reached.
William Fugazy, a former New York limousine-company executive who
pleaded guilty to perjury in a bankruptcy proceeding in 1997,
also had powerful allies. He says the "main person" helping him
gain a pardon was Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the House
Ways and Means Committee's top Democrat. Mr. Rangel confirmed
speaking to Mr. Clinton about the pardon application, which had
encountered resistance at the Justice Department.
"The number of people you can get to support your pardon
application does make a difference," Mr. Rangel said.
Among Mr. Fugazy's friends is former White House counsel Bernard
Nussbaum, who said he "never represented Mr. Fugazy" and
referred a reporter to Mr. Fugazy's lawyer, Andrew Maloney.
Mr. Maloney said Mr.
Nussbaum "mentioned that he talked to somebody" about the matter,
possibly in the White House. Mr. Nussbaum didn't return a
subsequent call for comment.
Almon Glenn Braswell, convicted in 1983 of mail fraud and perjury
stemming from false claims about the success of a baldness
treatment, also had a high-powered advocate -- Kendall Coffey,
who represented former Vice President Gore in Miami during the
Florida recount. The Justice Department Tuesday confirmed news
reports that Mr. Braswell is again under criminal investigation.
Messrs. Coffey and Braswell couldn't be reached for comment.
Some clemency recipients had their own personal ties. Edward
Downe, pardoned for insider trading, is a Democratic donor who
gave $1,000 to Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign and was invited to
a White House state dinner last year. Arnold Paul Prosperi,
whose sentence was commuted in a tax case involving funds
allegedly embezzled from a client, was a college friend of and
fund-raiser for Mr. Clinton who once donated $45,000 -- some of
it allegedly embezzled -- to the White House Historical
Association.
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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
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