NewsMax.com
Wednesday, March 28, 2001

In an earlier interview with the Associated Press, Ashcroft stopped short of accusing Clinton of anything illegal in his flurry of last-minute pardons before leaving office Jan. 20.

What the attorney general said was:

"We all know that the president's authority [under the Constitution to issue pardons] is a very broad authority.

"But I don't think anybody argues that the authority of the president, though, is to sell pardons."

According to a story in Wednesday's issue of the New York Daily News, Clinton's immediate response when told of what Ashcroft said about him was:

"If it was bad, he knows better."

That was followed up by advice to Ashcroft from Clinton press aide Julia Payne that he should have tempered his remarks:

"He, of all people, being the attorney general, should be more careful before he accuses someone of being guilty of something that has not been proven to be anything more than allegations, accusations, rumors and innuendo."

However, those allegations, accusations, rumors and innuendo are exactly what Mary Jo White, the United States prosecutor in Manhattan, is looking into with a grand jury investigation.

Appointed originally by Clinton, she has been left in place by Ashcroft, who authorized her to investigate possible corruption in all of the long list of pardons granted by Clinton on his way out of the presidency.

In his AP interview, Ashcroft indicated he will leave her in office at least through June.

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

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