Clinton regrets Marc Rich pardon (2002

[ProSense]

03/31/2002 - Updated 02:25 PM ET

Clinton regrets Marc Rich pardon

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Clinton says he regrets the last-minute pardon he gave to fugitive financier Marc Rich because it has tarnished his reputation.

Asked if he would do it again, "probably not, just for the politics," he said in an interview with Newsweek magazine. "It was terrible politics. It wasn't worth the damage to my reputation. But that doesn't mean the attacks were true."

A list of 177 pardons and clemencies was released by the Clinton White House just hours before Clinton left office and George W. Bush was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2001.

Since then, they have been investigated by federal prosecutors and Congress. That scrutiny, Clinton said, made him "just angry that after I worked so hard and after all that money had been spent proving that I never did anything wrong for money, that I'd get mugged one more time on the way out the door."

Rich was indicted in 1983 on federal charges accusing him of evading more than $48 million in income taxes and illegally buying oil from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. He left the United States before the indictment and now lives in Switzerland.

Rich is the ex-husband of Denise Rich, a financial contributor to the Democratic Party and to Clinton's presidential library.

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Federal investigators in New York are investigating whether any of Clinton's last-minute pardons were offered in exchange for contributions.

Clinton denied all wrongdoing in regard to the Rich pardon. "The fact that his ex-wife ... was for it and had contributed to my library had nothing to do with it," according to the Newsweek interview released Sunday.

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Clinton has also been challenged by members of Congress for accepting a reported $450,000 donation to his library from the former wife of fugitive financier Marc Rich before he granted Rich a pardon for tax evasion in 2001. Neither Clinton nor the Rich family confirmed the donation.

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Obama comes clean, but Hillary's sleaze machine thrives

[Big Blue Marble]

1. Will Bill give the money back?

Marc Rich's socialite ex-wife has donated an estimated $1 million to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's successful Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund. She also lobbied heavily for Marc's pardon. Investigators want to know if Denise's contributions led to a direct quid pro quo exchange for her ex-husband's pardon. Clinton has denied any connection, saying he relied solely on the information provided by Jack Quinn (former White House counsel and Rich's current lawyer) when he was weighing the pardon request.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99302,00.html

[Whisp]

3. All Apologizes...

in the sun
in the sun (son number 1 to Pooppy)
I feel as one
in the sun
in the sun
I'm married
buried

I wish I was like you
easily amused

[gateley]

2. Clinton has always seemed to view himself as a victim - that bothered me about

him when he was in office, too.

[Big Blue Marble]

6. They both do.

And it has always worked in the past. :puke:


Maybe now not so much. :shrug:

[DJ13]

4. He also never supported the Iraq War

:eyes:

[Tulkas]

5. sure, and his S___ doesn't stink either

[swoop]

7. Too bad he doesn't mind it because it was the wrong thing to do.

He only minds NOW because it refleccts badly on him.

Self-serving.