Clinton Denies Rich Pardon Was Political

Clinton Denies Rich Pardon Was Political

CNSNews.com
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2001

Former President Bill Clinton in New York Friday said there was "absolutely nothing political" about the recent pardon of fugitive Marc Rich.

Rich was pardoned by Clinton just hours before he relinquished the presidency to George W. Bush.

Speaking on Fox News Channel, Clinton said: "On the Rich pardon, what happened was that I was asked by my former counsel Jack Quinn to look at it. He had originally refused to take the case because he believed all the criticisms about it, and when he looked at it he concluded that he [Rich] was wrongly charged.

"I agreed to do it only on the condition that Mr. Rich would waive all his offenses. If I'm wrong and he shouldn't have been pardoned, then the government can go against him, like they could everybody else. Otherwise, they would never have a chance to do that. But there was actually nothing political about it."

Rich's ex-wife, Denise, raised huge amounts of money for Clinton's presidential campaigns and Hillary Clinton's New York Senate campaign. Rich himself has been living overseas since 1983.

Clinton also defended his other last-minute pardons. "I pardoned about as many people, I think, as President Reagan did. And far fewer than President Ford or President Carter.

"And most of them, the reasons are self-evident, most of them are people that no one knows. I wish I could have found more people like that, that we could have gotten up through the system."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Pardongate
Clinton Scandals