Ex-’Junk Bond’ King Milken Seeking Presidential Pardon

Michael Milken, the wealthy financier who went to prison for stock fraud and since his release has become known as a philanthropist, is asking President Clinton to pardon him, Justice Department officials said Saturday.

Milken’s is one of several pardon requests Clinton is expected to consider before he leaves office on Jan. 20. Another controversial request is expected to come from Susan McDougal, who went to jail rather than testify in the Whitewater probe, said her lawyer, Mark Geragos of Los Angeles.

“She has instructed me to go forward full-speed ahead and try to obtain a favorable consideration from the president,” Geragos said. “She clearly has suffered more than anyone . . . she was caught up in a feeding frenzy.”

McDougal, with her late ex-husband, James, was a business partner of the Clintons in the failed Whitewater real estate development in Arkansas. Despite extensive investigation, no charges were brought against the Clintons in the matter. Independent counsel Robert W. Ray closed the case in September.

White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert declined comment Saturday on possible pardons.

“We don’t discuss pardons until the president makes a decision,” he said. “The president has promised to review as many cases as he can, and we will not comment on the process until it is complete.”

Milken, 54, lives in Encino and devotes himself to supporting cancer research and organizations that work with youths. He is a prostate cancer survivor.

A spokesman for Milken, Geoffrey Moore, declined to discuss the pardon request. But he said that Milken met Clinton in passing some years ago and that a few months ago the president sent him a personal note about an article Milken wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The Sept. 5 commentary dealt with the link between knowledge and higher earnings and urged making lifelong education and training a national priority. The president “was gracious enough to send a note congratulating him and urging him to keep working in the area,” said Moore.

A report on the role of Los Angeles supermarket magnate Ron Burkle in Milken’s pardon request has raised concerns in Washington. A story in Saturday’s New York Times said that Burkle, a major Democratic fund-raiser, has lobbied the White House on Milken’s behalf.

“The involvement of Mr. Burkle raises very serious questions about the integrity of the pardon process in this case,” said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime critic of the campaign finance system and who heads an organization called Democracy 21. “It creates the appearance of someone with undue influence with President Clinton playing a significant role.”

A spokesman for Burkle was unavailable Saturday. However, Moore, Milken’s spokesman, said, “There’s no campaign” for a pardon.

Burkle has long believed that Milken was unjustly prosecuted, said an acquaintance familiar with the businessman’s position. “He felt that Milken was singled out for reasons that weren’t quite clear, and they could have gone after dozens of others for doing the same thing,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Milken first gained public attention for his involvement with “junk bonds,” the highly speculative securities that defined the stock market frenzy of the 1980s. In 1990, Milken pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to six felonies, including illegally concealing stock positions, helping clients evade income taxes and a conspiracy involving secret record-keeping. He paid hefty fines and served two years of a 10-year sentence.

A Justice Department official said Milken’s application for a pardon was received earlier this fall. Department officials investigate clemency petitions and make a recommendation, but the power to grant or deny rests exclusively with the president.

An investigation can take as long as two years, but the president does not have to wait for an investigation or a recommendation to act. Requests for clemency can also be made directly to the White House, bypassing the Justice Department.

Many presidential pardons pass with little notice, but some have attracted significant attention. President Ford was plagued politically by his decision to preemptively pardon former President Nixon from any charges arising from the Watergate scandal. Ford became president when that scandal forced Nixon to resign in 1974.

More recently, President Bush sparked a furor when he pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and five others implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal. The Christmas Eve pardons in 1992--coming a month before Bush left office--forced prosecutors who were planning to take Weinberger to trial to drop the case.