Clinton pardons ‘Rich’ fugitive

Talk about going out with a bang, Mr. President. Not only are Republicans buzzing over former President Clinton’s decisions regarding his pardon of financier Marc Rich, but members of his own party are also criticizing how the White House failed to tell the Justice Department one little detail about Rich, the fact that he was a fugitive.

Not to say that the concept of pardons is anything new. At the end of a presidential term, presidents have the option to grant pardons to convicted criminals.

Yet Clinton, like many other recent presidents, is using pardons to take care of friends or fellow politicians who have found themselves tangled in the tricky web also known as the law. Such presidents include Gerald Ford’s Watergate reprieve for Richard Nixon, and George Bush’s 1992 pardon of six figures in the Iran Contra scandal.

Clinton’s list has turned heads as he pardoned three former associates, all related to the Whitewater scandal, but none of his decisive pardons caused a stir through Washington like his decision to grant pardon to Rich.

Rich’s Jan. 20 pardon was one of 141 made by Clinton during his last morning in office. After learning of the pardon, Justice Department pardon attorney Roger Adams made a point to highlight his history of tax evasion, fraud and participation in illegal oil deals in Iran. Rich also has been living in Switzerland since just before he would have been indicted in New York in 1983. He fled to Europe to avoid standing trial and answering to his long list of criminal charges. All of the information gathered by Adams was received from the FBI.

On top of his past, questions regarding whether his pardon was influenced by money have arose. Evidence has been gathered that makes this pardon seem like a political favor, including a $1 million “donation” to Clinton’s presidential library from Rich’s former wife. The Senate is scheduled to review the pardon this week.

For Clinton advocates, many believe that the attention paid to these pardons, Rich’s in particular, are nothing more than an opportunity for Clinton-haters to push the former president into an unhappy-retirement corner. However, Clinton’s decision to pardon Rich proved to America that he chose to ignore the facts of Rich’s past and, in doing so, turned a pardon into a form of abuse of power.

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