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Top Advisers Told Clinton Not to Pardon Rich CNSNews.comTop advisers to former president Bill Clinton told the House Government Reform Committee on Thursday that they advised Clinton not to pardon international fugitive Marc Rich. But despite their advice, the president pardoned Rich. Former Clinton counsel Beth Nolan said she discussed the Rich pardon with Clinton on Jan. 19, a day before Clinton left office. Committee ranking Democrat Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked Nolan why she thought Clinton pardoned Rich. "I said, look, my job is to tell you what I think about this and tell you about what my best judgment about it is, but I know, Mr. President, that it is not. He got to exercise the pardon powers. The president did it because he was the president," Nolan said. Former White House chief of staff John Podesta said: "I think he laid that out in his [Sunday New York Times] op-ed piece. I'm sure there were a variety of factors. "I think the fact that this happened at the end, on the 19th. I think the fact that he heard from [Israeli] Prime Minister Barak and Shimon Peres. Those were men he respected, and they were asking him to look at it. Based on that, he looked at it, and he bought the arguments. "I think the process could have been done better. He could have heard from the Justice Department, but he made the decision, I believe, on the merits of the case as he understood it." Waxman told the advisers: "The reason we are all here today is not because President Clinton exercised poor judgment. It's because there's a juicier scandal, a suspicion that something illegal has taken place." Waxman then asked Podesta, "Did you see anything in the pardon process that constituted wrongdoing of any kind?" "No," Podesta responded, "in the context that you are talking about, wrongdoing is different than making a bad judgment. I think that there was no wrongdoing." Former presidential assistant Bruce Lindsey said Clinton did not violate the law or commit any wrongdoing in the case of the Rich pardon or any other pardons. Waxman then asked Nolan, "Did you get a chance to form an opinion as to whether this pardon should have been granted?" Nolan replied, "I formed an opinion very quickly that the pardon shouldn't have been granted." The House committee subpoenaed Nolan, Podesta and Lindsey in its investigation of possible influence peddling or links between campaign donations and the pardon of Rich and others on Clinton's last day in office. Rich's ex-wife, Denise, gave more than $1 million to Democrat party campaigns and $450,000 to the Clinton library. Earlier Thursday, former Democratic National Committee Finance Chairwoman Beth Dozoretz invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and did not answer questions from the committee. She was excused from testifying by Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind. Denise Rich took the Fifth Amendment several weeks ago. Burton said their actions hindered the committee's investigation. "We have two key witnesses who are taking the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Denise Rich exercised her Fifth Amendment rights three weeks ago. We don't know if she's done anything wrong. We don't anticipate she has, but we sure wish she would answer our questions. We want to get to the bottom of this," said Burton. Copyright CNSNews.com
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