Release of Hillary's Day Planner. Were the Clinton selling pardons?

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The records do show Sen. Clinton twice meeting with Denise Rich at charity events in October and November 2000, at a time when Rich was seeking a pardon for her billionaire ex-husband.

Marc Rich evaded $48 million in taxes and engaged in illegal oil sales with Iran during the 1979 Hostage Crisis.

The Department of Justice had asked Clinton not to issue a pardon to Rich

Clinton pardoned Rich in the last hours of his administration in January 2001.

Denise Rich contributed about $400,000 to the Clinton presidential library.

Democratic sources say the donations were made in three installments, the first in July of 1998, the second in August 1999, and the final one last May.

The sources said Denise Rich gave money to the library after consulting with Beth Dozoretz, a close Clinton friend and major Democratic fund-raiser who discussed the pardon of Marc Rich with the President nine days before he granted it.

Denise Rich gave over $1 million to Democratic campaigns in the Clinton era and at least $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate race as well as $10,000 to the President's legal defense fund.

Only her contribution to Clinton's library remained a secret. Officers of the $150 million project have refused to divulge their funding sources, but Denise Rich's lawyer, Carol Elder Bruce, fueled speculation when she told House investigators, as they recalled it, that her client gave an "enormous sum of money" to it. The GOP probers want to know if any of the funds originated with Marc Rich and asked Denise Rich to answer questions for a Government Reform Committee hearing Thursday.

She refused to respond, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Reached Thursday night, Bruce declined to comment on the library gift, but noted a statement by her client's publicist that said Bruce told House investigators that Rich had "contributed generously to the party, the candidates and the presidential library."

Dozoretz's name surfaced at the hearing in a Jan. 10 e-mail from a Marc Rich confidant in Switzerland to Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel who lobbied Clinton on the pardon. The message reports on a conversation with Denise Rich, who was visiting Aspen with Dozoretz, identified as "B" in the e-mail. "Her friend B... got a call from Potus who said he was impressed by last letter and that he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around" the White House counsels, it said. Denise Rich, it went on, "thinks he sounded very positive but that we have to keep praying."

Dozoretz, who named Clinton a godfather to one of her children, could not be reached for comment. A source close to her confirmed the call from Clinton and said Dozoretz had raised the pardon issue with the President. The source insisted, however, that Clinton never told her he was trying to "turn around" his White House lawyers.

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1. Pardons For Votes

Hillary's Senate campaign caught up in Clinton pardons scandal
Independent, The (London), Feb 24, 2001 by Mary Dejevsky in Washington

THE CLINTON Pardongate scandal deepened further yesterday into a "pardons for votes" investigation with the confirmation that former President Bill Clinton was being investigated not just for his pardon of the billionaire financier Marc Rich, but for commuting the sentences of four New York Hasidic Jews.

The four were convicted of embezzling millions of dollars in government funds, and leaders of their New Square community met Mr Clinton to plead their case.

Unlike the Marc Rich probe, which focuses on whether the pardon was effectively "bought" by political donations made by Mr Rich's ex- wife, the latest investigation by the New York attorney's office is directed at establishing whether the pardons were granted in return for votes for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

The Hasidic Jews of New Square turned out en bloc to vote for Mrs Clinton. As voters known for following the advice of their community leaders, this group is a sought-after constituency for politicians.

The latest twist in the pardons saga compounds the problems not just for Bill Clinton, who acceded to the request for the commutations, but for Mrs Clinton - who acknowledges sitting in on the meeting, while taking no part. "I did not play any role whatsoever," she said last month when the first questions arose about the Hasidic Jews. "I had no opinion about it."

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2. Hillary's Brother Paid f/Soliciting Pardons

Coming hard on the heels of revelations that Mrs Clinton's lawyer brother, Hugh Rodham, was paid $400,000 for soliciting presidential pardons on behalf of two convicted criminals.

Hillary’s brother Tony Rodham represented Edgar and Vonna Gregory for a pardon, which Bill granted so that Gregory’s business could get federal contracts. Edgar and his wife had convictions for bank fraud that interfered with United Shows, and the Gregorys needed connections. Not only did they hire Rodham to represent them, they donated $10,000 to Hillary Clinton — half before the pardon, and half afterwards, in 2000.

The story doesn’t end there. The Gregorys then made a series of “loans” to Tony Rodham totaling over $100,000, the last of which came right before they declared bankruptcy in 2002, leaving creditors holding the bag once again. Rodham never made a single payment to repay these loans, and the Gregorys never made any attempt to collect them. Only after the United Shows books came under the scrutiny of bankruptcy courts did anyone press Rodham to repay the debt as an asset of United Shows.

At a press conference, Hillary insisted she had known nothing of her brother's role. "If I had known about it, I would not be standing here," she said, strongly inferring that she would have vetoed her brother's involvement.

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3. Hillary's Campaign treasurer also paid to solicit pardons

Mrs Clinton's campaign treasurer, William Cunningham, called his own press conference yesterday to answer charges that he too had been paid to solicit pardons, in this case for two convicts from Arkansas. He said that he had acted at the request of a lawyer friend of his in Arkansas and charged a standard fee for preparing the papers: just over $4,000.

His position in Mrs Clinton's campaign, he said, had nothing to do with his agreeing to take on the cases; he had not brought the matter to Mrs Clinton's attention and had no contact with Mr Clinton either.

[KittyWampus]

4. Wiki on FALN pardons. Why was it really done?

On August 11, 1999, Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States mostly in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.<3> None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, though they were sentenced with terms ranging from 35 to 105 years in prison for the conviction of conspiracy and sedition. Congress, however, recognizes that the FALN is responsible for "6 deaths and the permanent maiming of dozens of others, including law enforcement officials." All of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House.<4> Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticized by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police,<5> members of Congress. Hillary Clinton, then campaigning for her first term in the Senate, initially supported the commutation,<6> but later withdrew her support when the prisoners had refused to renounce violence more than three weeks after clemency was offered.<7> Congress condemned the action, with a vote of 95-2 in the Senate and 311-41 in the House.<8><9> The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform held an investigation on the matter, but the Justice Department prevented FBI officials from testifying.<10> President Clinton cited executive privilege for his refusal to turn over some documents to Congress related to his decision to offer clemency to members of the FALN terrorist group.

Which Babra Olson points out in The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House was a pardon made simply to court favor with the Puerto Rican community in New York because Hillary would be running for the Senate seat.

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5. Bill pardoned 4 NY Hasidim convicted of defrauding Govt. while Hillary met in the WH

with 2 leaders of the Hasidic sect who were seeking the pardons for their fellow community members.

These are Jews from the Skver sect in Rockland County village of New Square.

The usually Republican voting sect delivered their votes to Hillary in her 1st Senate campaign.

Hillary Clinton has insisted she played no role in commuting the sentences of the four Hasidim, who stole more than $30 million in government grants, subsidies and loans, and that she did nothing unethical by attending two sessions with the leaders who sought their pardons.

The first took place in the Rockland County village of New Square last August, while she was running for the Senate. State party operatives thought the tiny community--which had often voted in a bloc in the past--was a promising one for Hillary in her race against Republican Rick Lazio.

Following Hasidic custom, Hillary covered her head and chatted about the village's health-care services from across a coffee table, on which a tall bouquet of flowers served as the traditional screen that Hasidim require between the sexes. As far as anyone knows, that was a campaign event only; no pardons were mentioned.

The next session came four months later, after the sect had delivered nearly 1,400 votes for Hillary and only 12 for Lazio. On the morning of Dec. 22, Grand Rabbi David Twersky and an associate went to the White House and tearfully appealed to the President to pardon Benjamin Berger, David Goldstein, Jacob Elbaum and Kalman Stern. Hillary attended the meeting in the White House Map Room but insists she did not participate in the conversation. "I did not play any role whatsoever," she told the Associated Press. "I had no opinion about it."

Clinton eventually commuted the sentences, but Hillary insists she never discussed the matter with her husband. A chat between President and Senator about pardoning a home-state constituent is no big deal. But federal investigators want to find out if the reduced sentences were traded for support at the ballot box.