LOS ANGELES - William Clinton did not leave the White House. He oozed out
of it, leaving a trail of reeking corruption that left even his most
faithful defenders gagging in revulsion.
First, to escape prosecution for perjury in the Monica Lewinsky case,
Clinton admitted lying under oath, had his law license suspended, and paid
a US$25,000 fine.
Next, the Clintons made off with $180,000 of White House furnishings, and a
truckload of gifts from influence-seekers, including expensive tables from
a certain Mrs. Denise Rich.
Then, at midnight on his last day in office, Clinton pardoned 140
criminals. Drug dealers formed the largest number, followed by mail
fraudsters, assorted crooks, even a con-man I had encountered a decade ago.
Among the felons Clinton pardoned were his cocaine-dealing brother, Roger;
Whitewater business partner and sometime former lover, Susan McDougal; and
disgraced former CIA Director, John Deutch.
Susan McDougal's refusal to testify to Whitewater investigators saved Bill
and Hillary Clinton from indictment for fraud. Charges against Deutch have
not been fully revealed.
Clinton pardoned four men from a Hassidic community in upstate New York who
had swindled the US government of millions. By sheer coincidence, Hillary
Clinton won all the community's votes in her senate race.
So far, so bad. Then came the Marc Rich bombshell. Clinton rushed through a
pardon for Rich, a fugitive, billionaire financier who was on the FBI's Ten
Most Wanted List. Rich, and partner Pincus Green, fled to Switzerland in
1983 as US federal prosecutors were about to arrest them for massive fraud,
tax evasion, illegal arms and oil deals with Iran, Iraq, and Libya.
A note of full disclosure: I am acquainted with both Marc Rich and his wife
Denise, and was recently a guest at her Fifth Avenue, 3-floor penthouse in
New York. Marc Rich is a brilliant, charming man who radiates intelligence.
Last time I met Rich was in Marbella, Spain, sporting a beautiful new wife.
Ex-wife Denise, a songwriter, is a warm, gregarious woman who is fast
becoming the queen bee of New York's liberal cultural glitterati set.
Denise Rich contributed $1 million to the Democratic Party and, recently,
$450,000 to the new Clinton Library. Some of this money must have come from
Marc Rich, who reportedly transferred funds into his wife's name before
fleeing the US. Denise Rich lamely denies these donations influenced
Clinton's 12th-hour decision to pardon Marc Rich. But when called to
testify about the pardon before Congress, she took the Fifth Amendment
against self-incrimination.
Marc Rich mounted an international campaign to win a pardon. He even got
Prime Minister Barak of Israel to lobby for him, as well as the head of
Mossad, who said Rich had often helped Israel's intelligence agency. Rich
claimed he deserved a pardon by the US, whose citizenship he had renounced,
and whose taxes he evaded, because he had given many millions to Israeli
charities. Denise claimed Marc had been `suffering in exile' on his lavish
Swiss estate.
Even ardent Democrats couldn't defend Clinton's latest disgraceful
behavior. As indignation swept across the US, federal prosecutors opened a
criminal investigation of Clinton's pardon of Rich. Proving bribery is
extremely difficult. Clinton, who has nimbly skirted the law throughout his
career, will probably escape conviction yet again.
Frankly, I don't blame the Rich's for trying to buy a pardon from the
everything's-for-sale Clintons. So many others bought the Clintons, why
shouldn't they?
There was the amazing $100,000 Hillary made overnight in futures trading,
courtesy of an Arkansas chicken producer. Bill and Hillary's rich liberal
friends in Hollywood, who provided the lion's share of Democratic Party's
funding in exchange for total US political support and a couple of billion
in extra aid for Israel. All those mysterious Chinese gentlemen with
cash-stuffed envelopes, producing trade concessions and US missile
technology for China, thank you Bill. The $1 million donation from
Indian-Americans, which tilted US policy towards India. The list goes on
and on.
For the Clintons, politics has always been a giant cash cow. Before coming
to Washington, Gov. Clinton of Arkansas had few assets and earned less than
a good secretary does in New York. Today, the Clintons have somehow become
multi-millionaires on an after-tax, annual presidential salary of about
$125,000, in spite of millions of dollars of legal expenses. They
accomplished this feat, let's use the right term, by peddling influence,
the Rich case being Exhibit A.
Former president Ronald Reagan granted 180 pardons over two terms in
office. Most were for patriotic government officials. George Bush Sr. pardoned
patriots like Caspar Weingerger and other Iran-Contra players. These were patriots,
not felons. By contrast, Clinton's pardons, mainly for crooks and his sleazy
cronies, say volumes about the character of this disreputable man who
manages, even now, to dishonor the presidency of the United States.
If Osama Bin Laden had the good sense to contribute a few million dollars
to the Clinton Library, he would now probably be lunching with Bill and
Hillary in Manhattan, instead of hiding in the frigid mountains of
Afghanistan.
A bad omen for the Mideast's future.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2001
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