Secrecy Stressed in Bid To Win Rich's Pardon Hearing Told of Lawyers' Strategizing

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 9, 2001; Page A01

Lawyers seeking a presidential pardon for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich strategized relentlessly about how to win support from politicians and campaign contributors while working to keep their effort secret, according to e-mail and other documents released at a House hearing yesterday.

One e-mail sent in November to former White House lawyer Jack Quinn and other Rich attorneys cited "a need for secrecy and possibility/likelihood of potential leaks." News of the effort didn't leak, but the announcement of then-president Bill Clinton's pardon of Rich triggered a wave of controversy, in part because prosecutors in the tax-evasion case never knew clemency was under consideration.

The documents offer new evidence of how aggressive the Rich pardon campaign was in reaching out to influential people around the globe. They contacted or discussed enlisting support from the likes of the King of Spain, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. They also considered Holocaust expert and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who was described in one e-mail as "the 'moral authority' to present the plea."

Other documents said that the King of Spain called Clinton about the pardon and that Wiesel brought it up with a White House aide but not the president.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee and a longtime Clinton foe, said he called the hearing to examine the process even though he knows the president's pardon power is absolute. "We want an explanation," he said. "We think the American people would like to know how it happened."

Rich and business partner Pincus "Pinky" Green were indicted in 1983 for allegedly cheating the government out of $48 million in taxes and trading with Iran during the hostage crisis. But they had fled the country and never faced trial.

Two invited witnesses, Clinton White House Counsel Beth Nolan and longtime Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey, declined to appear. A Burton aide said they will be subpoenaed for a future hearing.

Denise Rich, Marc Rich's ex-wife and a major Democratic contributor, also was invited. But she asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify even though she was not compelled to appear. Burton said the committee might offer her immunity to obtain her testimony.

He also will subpoena her financial records, a Burton aide said. A document released at the hearing quoted Denise Rich's attorney as saying she also had given "an enormous sum" to Clinton's presidential library.

Former acting attorney general Eric Holder, speaking on the issue for the first time, told the committee that he had "only a passing familiarity" with the Rich case and challenged Quinn's account that he was "intimately involved or overly interested in this matter."

At the same time, Holder said he told Nolan he was "neutral, leaning towards favorable" on the pardon, even though he claimed to know little about the case. And he acknowledged approaching Quinn about support for a potential bid to become attorney general if then-vice president Al Gore won the presidential election. But he said that played no role in his remarks.

Holder expressed regret he did not do more to prevent the pardon. "Knowing everything that I know now, I would not have recommended to the president that he grant the pardon," he said.

Burton and other committee members were openly skeptical about the testimony from both Holder and Quinn. Members questioned Quinn about a series of e-mails that described the wide-ranging efforts Rich's backers made to secure the pardon.

In the e-mails, Rich's attorneys often used initials, such as HRC for Hillary Rodham Clinton, to refer to people. The group was torn over whether and how to approach the first lady. On Dec. 27, Avner Azulay, managing director of Rich's foundation in Israel, wrote to Rich and the attorneys about "Chuck Shumer," referring to Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.):

"I have been advised that HRC shall feel more at ease if she is joined by her elder senator of NY who also represents the jewish population. The private request from DR [an apparent reference to Denise Rich] shall not be sufficient."

Azulay subsequently suggested "we should just leave HRC alone" because she might raise questions that could undermine the pardon effort. Hillary Clinton has said she had no involvement in her husband's decision.

On the afternoon of Dec. 27, another Rich advocate wrote: "Can quinn tell us who is close enough to lean on schumer?? I am certainly willing to call him, but have no real clout. Jack might be able to tell us quickly who the top contributors are." Schumer, who has sharply criticized the pardon, was never contacted, a spokesman said.

Another document suggested that Clinton was facing opposition to the pardon within the White House. In a Jan. 10 e-mail, Azulay said that Denise Rich told him that Clinton had phoned a friend and said "he wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH counsels."

In a Jan. 4 e-mail to Quinn, Rich aide Azulay appears to suggest that the Rich pardon might make it easier for Israeli officials backing it to accept rejection on their hopes that Clinton pardon convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Citing "the info on JP," Azulay wrote: "It seems the topic was discussed in telecons with potus [the president of the United States] -- within the framework of the peace agreement. JP's freedom is considered as a public-political 'sweet pill' which shall help swallow (or divert public attention from) the more sour pills in the agreement with arafat. I am sure potus is aware that JP is going to be big trouble with the entire intelligence community and MR could go along with it 'less unnoticed.' On the other hand if he says no to JP -- one more reason to say yes to MR."

While Quinn continued to defend the pardon and his role in it, two former federal prosecutors, Morris "Sandy" Weinberg Jr. and Martin J. Auerbach, described the pardon as "an outrage."

Staff writer James V. Grimaldi contributed to this report.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

Sshhh! Don’t tell anybody we’re going to pardon a fugitive (Marc Rich)

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), February 11, 2001

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Response to Sshhh! DonÂ’t tell anybody weÂ’re going to pardon a fugitive (Marc Rich)

This little example really stunk Didn't it? Won't matter to the purposefuly blind core but hope it bleeds over a bit to 2002. Pity Maxine Waters' and Henry Waxman's constituent's can't or don't bother to read.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), February 11, 2001.