Better Path in Pardon Case

Former President Bill Clinton insists he pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich because it “was the right thing to do.” He hasn’t offered to explain what made it right, leaving that chore to Jack Quinn, one of Rich’s lawyers and Clinton’s former White House counsel, who got his old boss to issue the pardon in his final hours in office. Quinn says Clinton “grasped the essence of my argument” that the case “should have been handled civilly, not criminally.” If that’s true then Clinton astonishingly let Quinn’s self-interested judgment override that of federal prosecutors and the Justice Department’s lead pardon attorney, who opposed clemency. That was asking for trouble, and now trouble has come.

Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney in New York, has begun investigating whether the pardons of Rich and his former business partner, Pincus Green, violated any federal laws. At issue is whether the very large contributions made by Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, to the Democratic Party, to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for the Senate and to Clinton’s proposed presidential library influenced the pardon decision. Denise Rich has refused to answer 14 questions put to her by a House committee, citing her constitutional right against self-incrimination. One focus of the New York investigation is expected to be whether she was illegally reimbursed for her political donations.

The pardons, which are irrevocable under the constitutional power granted a president, have become the big stink that won’t go away. Rich is not just another run-of-the-mill fugitive from justice. He fled to Switzerland in 1983 as he was about to be indicted on more than 50 counts of racketeering, income tax evasion and illegal oil trading with Iran. The inquiry opened by White, who was appointed U.S. attorney by Clinton, is better than a congressional investigation for digging out the facts about what led to the pardon, if only because it will be freer from suspicions of partisanship.

Clinton said in a statement this week that he looks forward to cooperating with any “appropriate inquiry,” words that have a familiar ring. Presumably that means he won’t try to block access to White House records and that he will make himself available for questioning. There should be no rush to judgment about whether Denise Rich was a conduit for illegal contributions or whether criminal bribery may have occurred, but a full and expeditious investigation clearly is warranted, if only to help clear the air of that awful smell.