Family Ties to Clemency Cases Dog Clintons

The controversy over President Clinton’s eleventh-hour pardons escalated Thursday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) denied knowing that her brother had received a large sum of money to push two clemency requests and a spokesman for former President Clinton acknowledged that the president’s brother personally lobbied for clemency for several of his “friends and acquaintances.”

Sen. Clinton was asked by reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference about the activities of her brother Hugh Rodham as well as revelations that her campaign treasurer had handled the pardon applications of two Arkansas men convicted of tax evasion.

Rodham accepted $400,000 to push successfully for a commutation for convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali of Los Angeles and a pardon for herbal remedy marketer Almon Glenn Braswell of Florida. But Rodham returned the money earlier this week at the insistence of the Clintons.

Sen. Clinton insisted that she had not learned until late Monday that her brother was paid to push two clemency requests. “If I had known about this, we wouldn’t have been standing here today. I might have been able to prevent this from happening.”

Roger Clinton handed his brother a list containing eight to 10 names in late December or early January, said Julia Payne, chief spokeswoman for the former president. Roger Clinton knew those on the list and considered them deserving of pardons or commutations.

The president gave the list to the White House counsel’s office, Payne said, adding that all the requests eventually were denied after the White House sought input from the Justice Department.

Payne said that she recently spoke with Roger Clinton and asked him whether any money had exchanged hands between him and his friends. “There was no money involved,” she said. “That comes from Roger. No money was asked for, nor was he paid.”

She added that Roger Clinton was not upset that the clemency requests were turned down.

“He said he knew his brother would have to make the decisions,” Payne said.

The president did, however, pardon his brother, convicted on drug charges in the 1980s.

A House committee sent Roger Clinton a letter Thursday seeking to determine how deeply involved he might have been in pushing for pardons and commutations. One official on the committee said the panel was looking into whether Roger Clinton “may have been” soliciting money in return for seeking the president’s help with pardon applications.

At her news conference, Sen. Clinton said she was “just heartbroken and shocked” when she learned that her brother had accepted money to lobby for the two clemencies. “And, you know, [I] immediately said it was a terrible misjudgment and the money had to be returned.”

Sen. Clinton Defends Her Treasurer’s Role

The former first lady and freshman senator also acknowledged that her campaign treasurer had received $4,000 to represent two Arkansas men and help them prepare pardon applications that were eventually approved.

The treasurer, attorney William Cunningham III, said he had never contacted the White House about the applications or discussed them with either of the Clintons. Cunningham’s law partner, Clinton advisor Harold M. Ickes, also said that he did not discuss with the Clintons the pardon requests for Robert Clinton Fain (not believed to be related to the Clintons) and James Lowell Manning. Both men were convicted in the 1980s on tax-evasion charges.

But Sen. Clinton strongly defended Cunningham as a “fine lawyer and a fine man. . . . Lawyers from all over the country were involved in these matters.”

She also stressed that Cunningham’s work was far different from what her brother did.

“Please,” she said, “make a distinction between a gentleman with, you know, Mr. Cunningham’s background and experience and my brother, who, you know, as a family member, should not have been involved in these--this situation.”

The letter from the House Government Reform Committee to Roger Clinton asked him whether he had “worked on behalf of any individual seeking a pardon or commutation from President Clinton” and, if so, “have you received any payment?”

Roger Clinton also was asked to describe “any role” he had in clemency requests for Vignali and Braswell, as well as three other individuals--Joe McKernan and Mitchell Couey Wood of Arkansas and Phillip Young of Louisiana.

“We just want him to answer a few questions,” committee spokesman Mark Corallo said. “Were you involved in any way? Were you paid for any of this?”

Corallo added: “We have some information that he may have been. Now we need to ask him. There seems to be a pattern emerging here. People who had access to the former president may have been selling pardons or at least certainly trading on that access.”

The letter is similar to others the committee sent Wednesday to Rodham, Vignali and his father, Horacio Vignali.

In addition, the committee sent a letter Thursday to Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Florida who represented Braswell in his pardon request.

The committee chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), also expressed frustration over his efforts to obtain a list of donors who gave $5,000 or more to President Clinton’s presidential library fund in Little Rock, Ark. Burton wants to know whether any of those donations were made with money from Marc Rich, a fugitive commodities broker who received a pardon from the outgoing president.

Denise Rich, the fugitive’s former wife and a supporter of his pardon application, has contributed $450,000 to the library fund.

Presidential Library Won’t Divulge Records

Earlier in the day, David E. Kendall, the Washington lawyer representing President Clinton, sent an eight-page letter to Burton saying that he would not comply with the committee’s subpoena for the library fund’s records.

He called the committee’s request an “intrusion” into the operation of the presidential library foundation, a nonprofit organization, and said the law does not mandate that the contributors’ list be turned over.

“The subpoena,” he said, “is a classic fishing expedition.”

But Kendall did provide a breakdown of Denise Rich’s contributions. He said she gave $250,000 in 1998, $100,000 in 1999 and $100,000 in 2000.

Burton later issued a stinging statement saying that “this is unacceptable.”

“Nothing short of full compliance is acceptable,” Burton said.

“Until President Clinton releases this information and waives all claims of privilege over the testimony of his former staff, this committee and the public will believe that he has something to hide,” he added.

With the rhetoric rising from both sides, even President Bush’s midday news conference--his first as president--was upstaged by the sharp questions and rejoinders surrounding the Clinton family and the pardon process.

The second question asked Bush what he thought should be done about Rodham--and possibly others--who accepted money to lobby for those seeking clemency.

Bush sought to distance himself from the swirling controversy.

“As far as this White House is concerned, it’s time to go forward,” he said. “I’ve got too much to do.”

But, he said, “I understand there’s going to be some people on Capitol Hill that are going to be asking questions. That’s their right to do so.

“But I can assure you, our White House is moving forward. And to the extent the Justice Department looks into this matter, it will be done in a nonpolitical way.”