Phil Brennan
Monday, Aug. 27, 2001

Reportedly, Roger told parole officials the president had advised him on how he should deal with them.

Seeking a forbidden meeting with a commission official from Arkansas, Roger Clinton told the man's secretary in a phone call that he had a "very important" matter to discuss and that his "brother recommended meeting," the official according to the woman's notes, the New York Times reported this weekend.

The official, Michael J. Gaines, had worked for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas and knew the Clinton family, including Roger.

Barred from having a meeting with an interested party in a parole matter, Gaines asked Michael A. Stover, the commission's general counsel, to return the call.

According to the Times, Stover's notes state that Roger Clinton said his brother "is completely aware of my involvement" and had recommended that he meet with Gaines, "a friend of ours" from Arkansas.

The incident happened in 1996, when Roger Clinton went to bat for one Rosario Gambino, at the time serving a 45-year term in federal prison for his role in a heroin-smuggling ring.

Federal officials say that Gambino is connected to the Gambino crime family and is a distant relative of the late Carlo Gambino.

From that time until his brother's final days in the White House, Roger Clinton never let up in his efforts to win a release for Gambino.

The Times described his campaign on Gambino's behalf as "persistent and inventive," adding that he made at least four visits to the parole commission's headquarters in suburban Chase, Md.

Records obtained by the Times showed that Clinton attempted to use his past ties to Gaines, even invoking his brother's authority.

"Every time the phone rang, you thought, 'Oh, no, is it Roger Clinton again?'" recalled Thomas C. Kowalski, a top parole commission staff member who met with Clinton several times.

When Clinton sought to meet with Gaines, Stover told him that he was not permitted to meet with a commissioner on a specific case and urged him to submit his views in writing.

Clinton, he recalled, expressed "bewilderment" that President Clinton was ignorant of the commission's rules, and "He stated that he would have to inform his brother that his brother had been wrong."

In the wake of his conversation, Stover wrote in his notes that "the commission should be shielded if at all possible from the unwelcome intrusion of a man who would appear to have nothing to contribute to the commission's deliberations in the Gambino case but a crude (and I hope unauthorized) effort to exercise political influence."

That, however, didn't end Roger Clinton's attempts to contact Gaines. Shortly after President Clinton promoted Gaines to the chairmanship of the parole commission in 1997, Roger tried to contact him again. Gaines asked Marie Ragghianti, his newly appointed chief of staff, and Mr. Kowalski, the top commission staff member, to hear Roger Clinton out.

Clinton met with Ragghianti and Kowalski at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1997, according to commission memorandums.

According to documents obtained by the Times, Clinton told them that Rosario Gambino had at least two job opportunities awaiting him. He argued that the man was not an organized-crime figure but at most was on the fringes of organized crime.

That argument didn't wash, as a memorandum dated Dec. 30 by Kowalski showed.

He wrote that "documents in the file clearly depict the subject as an individual deeply involved in organized criminal activity."

In 1998, Clinton managed to get two more meetings with Ragghianti and Kowalski. At one meeting, Kowalski said, Clinton brandished pages from a Sicilian phone book to convince them that Gambino was a common name and did not prove any link to the late crime boss Carlo Gambino.

"I was very professional," Kowalski said. "I didn't laugh."

According to a September 1998 memorandum written by Sharon Gervasoni, the commission's ethics officer, Roger's meetings with the staff "seem to me designed to influence the decision-making process outside of the official record."

On Oct. 26, Ragghianti sent a fax to Roger asking that all future communication be in writing.

The Times reported that Roger left a message for her, apologizing if anyone "thought he was asking for something inappropriate." He also asked Ragghianti to call him back. She did not.

"The man never gave up," she said.

One reason for his persistence could be a promise made to Roger by Tommy Gambino, Rosario's son.

In a September 1999 interview with two FBI agents, Roger said that Tommy Gambino had told him "we will take care of you" if he won Rosario Gambino's release from prison, according to the agents' notes, and Clinton said he understood that meant he would be financially rewarded.

"I'm not stupid," he told the agents, according to their notes.

On one occasion in 1999, Clinton was seen accepting a Rolex watch from Tommy Gambino.

He told two gold companions that he was "helping" Tommy's father, unaware that the two me were Air Force intelligence officers, who reported the incident. He later denied getting the watch but finally admitted it.

He also acknowledged in an interview with the FBI that he had accepted plane tickets to Washington and expense money from Tommy Gambino.

He further said Gambino had "offered to loan" him money for a house. At the time of the interview, bank records show, Tommy's sister Anna had already signed a check for $50,000 for Roger Clinton.

Clinton is reportedly undergoing rehabilitation for cocaine addiction at the $675-a-day Cottonwood de Tucson rehab center, which he entered on July 19 for a 28-day stay, according to the National Enquirer.

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Pardongate

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