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Mark Rich

In the last few days, President Clinton indulged himself in an orgy of pardons, many done in the last two days. The pardon of Marc Rich was one of several of questionable merit. Rich was a fugitive who had remounced his US citizenship to avoid extradition. He had defruaded the US and its taxpayers, had traded with countries that supported terrorism and was on the FBI top ten wanted list when he was pardoned. The following information was extracted from Online News Hour, February 8, 2001. It will be interesting to see how those Democrat representatives who took exception to Holder's participation will look upon his appointment as Attorney General.

The House Government Reform Committee opened hearings Thursday on President Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.

Today's hearing was the first in a Congressional probe into former President Clinton's controversial pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich. The 65-year-old
financier was among the 140 individuals Bill Clinton pardoned during the final hours of his presidency.

Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 after being charged, with his colleague Pincus Green, for tax evasion,fraud, and illegal trading with Iran. Both men were
indicted in absentia and never faced trial. Both received a full pardon. Today on Capitol Hill, members of the House Government Reform Committee asked
witnesses to shed light on how and why Rich's pardon was granted.

REP. DAN BURTON: And we just want an explanation and I think the American people would like to know what happened. We don't know all the
facts yet, and that's one of the main reasons we're here today. However, this much seems clear: There is a procedure that is usually followed for
pardons and that in this case -- that procedure was not followed. There is a pardon attorney at the Justice Department, pardon applications are submitted
to the pardon attorney for review. After they've been thoroughly reviewed the Justice Department then makes a recommendation, and the application is sent
to the President for a decision. In this case, none of that happened.

REP. HENRY WAXMAN: The Rich pardon is a bad precedent. It appears to set a double standard for the wealthy and the powerful, and it is an end
run around the judicial process. Think about it for a minute: One week Marc Rich is on the Justice Department's list of the 10 most wanted; andthe next week,
he's given a presidential pardon. This makes no sense. Something has to happen in-between. They can't - this gap can't be bridged in just one big jump.
But under the current system, the President is allowed to make bad judgments that all of us disagree with when he issues pardons. That's how the system
works.

(Jack Quinn, Rich's attorney, was once one of Bill Clinton's White House counsels. Quinn lobbied the Clinton administration for Rich's last- minute pardon.
In his opening statements, he defended his actions.)

JACK QUINN: I acted here as a lawyer who believes in the merits of the case that I made. I acted as a lawyer who vigorously and ethically pursued
my client's interests as I'm required to do under the canons of ethics and I acted as a lawyer who followed a process that included, not excluded,the United
States Department of Justice. I want to emphasize from the outset that the process I followed was one of transparency at both theDepartment of Justice
and the White House. I remain to this day absolutely and unshakably convinced that the prosecutors constructed a legal house of cards in this indictment.
At the heart of this case is a tax charge that I do believe is meritless.

(One of the former prosecutors in the case, Sandy Weinberg, told the panel why he thought Marc Rich was not worthy of a pardon.)

SANDY WEINBERG: We are here to express our outrage at the pardons of Mr. Rich and Mr. Green, who for the past 17 years have been international
fugitives in what is the biggest tax fraud case in the history of the United States. As international fugitives who renounced their American citizenship in 1983
for the specific purpose of avoiding extradition on these charges, we do not believe that Mr. Rich or Mr. Green should have been candidates for pardon. We
are particularly distressed because despite what Mr. Quinn has said today, it appears that the President received no input from anyone who had any knowledge
of the particulars of this prosecution from the prosecution side. In truth, Mr. Rich and Mr. Green, in my opinion, have forfeited their right to question the
merits of this case in their pardon application by becoming fugitives, by renouncing their citizenship, by having their companies plead guilty to the scheme
years ago.

(Both Quinn and Weinberg were asked about political contributions made by Rich's former wife, Denise.)

REP. DANNY DAVIS: Is there any reason for you to believe that there is any connection between the contributions that Mrs. Rich made and the ultimate
decision to pardon her former husband?

JACK QUINN: None of the conversations I had with the President or anyone working at the White House or anyone in the Department of Justice gave...
give me any reason to believe that this was decided on anything other than what the President thought to be the merits.

SANDY WEINBERG: I mean I have feelings but I obviously have no information. And the problem I have with all this is that it's the appearance -- I mean,
you know, Mr. Quinn's intimacy with the President, you know, Mrs. Rich's contributions, in my opinion, the lack of any merit whatsoever in the application,
the fact that he was a fugitive and had renounced his citizenship. I was asked, can I see any legitimate reason for the pardon? And the answer is no, I don't.

(Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder was grilled over his role in the pardon. Some of the details he's giving contradict Jack Quinn.)

ERIC HOLDER: In hindsight, I wish I had done some things differently with regard to the Marc Rich matter -- specifically I wish I had ensured that the
Department of Justice was more fully informed and involved in this pardon process but let me be very clear, very clear, about one important fact. Efforts
to portray me as intimately involved or overly interested in this matter are simply at odds with the facts -- in truth because the Marc Rich case did not stand
out as one that was particularly merit or use and because there was a very large number of cases across my desk that fit into this category I never devoted
a great deal of time to this matter; I and others at the Justice Department had nothing to gain or to lose by the decision in this matter. We had no professional,
personal or financial relationship with Mr. Rich or anyone connected to him. And to the best of my knowledge, none of us ever saw the Rich pardon
application. Indeed it is now clear-- and this is admittedly hindsight-- that we at the Justice Department and more importantly former President Clinton, the
American public in the cause of justice would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels.

(Holder said he was swayed in part by a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recommending the Rich pardon. Republicans on thecommittee took
Holder to task for not gathering more information about the case.)

REP. BOB BARR: It's like Keystone Cops. But I don't think it is. I think the President knew exactly what he was doing. You didn't request information so
you could probably say, "I don't know." In other words, have you ever heard of the concept of deliberate ignorance? Well, maybe not. Most prosecutors have

ERIC HOLDER: I will stand here and have people say that I have made a mistake. I'll debate that. But you're now implying that I have done something that's
essentially corrupt. And I will not accept that; that I will not accept. There is not -

REP. BOB BARR: You sit here and you tell us you don't know how the White House counsel works. You say, well, you told somebody to look into it. They
didn't but that's okay. It was an unremarkable case. Your own prosecutors have said this was a very significant case, and you say based on one conversation
with the White House counsel that mentions a foreign leader's name that you changed leaning favorable.

ERIC HOLDER: I said... what I said was if there were a foreign policy benefit that would come from the pardon, if, if, and I was leaving to them to make
that determination.

(Hearings on the Rich pardon are scheduled for next week in the Senate, where the committee chairman is considering calling former President Clinton as a witness.)
[Never happened]