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Bill Clinton's Pardons a Campaign Issue for Hillary NewsMax.com Staff An obscure court case threatens to bring Bill Clinton's presidential pardons controversy back into the public eye just as Hillary Clinton heats up her campaign for the White House. Bill Clinton issued 140 presidential pardons in his final days in office, and drew howls of protest when it came to light that Hillary's two brothers had received money from several of the people pardoned. Clinton pardoned Almon Glenn Braswell of his mail fraud and perjury convictions, and commuted the sentence of cocaine trafficker Carlos Vignali. Hillary's brother Hugh Rodham received nearly $400,000 for lobbying for the two men, although he later returned the money. Hillary's other brother Tony Rodham received a $107,000 "loan" from Vonna Jo Gregory, owner of the carnival company United Shows International, and her husband Edgar, who were pardoned for a bank fraud conviction. Edgar has since died, and the carnival company is bankrupt. Now the bankruptcy trustee has filed suit against Tony Rodham, seeking the return of the $107,000. Before he received that money, Rodham had been paid $224,769 by the couple over 2 1/2 years to serve as a business consultant, the Boston Globe reports. At issue is whether the $107,000 was part of his salary or, as the trustee maintains, a loan that with interest would now be $153,000.
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U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Marian Harrison of Nashville has ordered Tony Rodham to respond by March 16 to the trustee's allegation. When Rodham's involvement with the Gregorys became public in early 2001, Hillary said her brother "was not paid." But the House Government Reform Committee report the following year called for a further review to determine whether Hillary "knew of the financial relationship between Tony Rodham and the Gregorys when Rodham was lobbying the President for pardons." The report said Clinton's "statement that Tony Rodham ‘was not paid' is not accurate." The organization Judicial Watch said the bankruptcy court case should prompt the Justice Department to revisit the pardon, according to the Globe. But a Justice Department official notified Judicial Watch that "it is likely that any new allegations would be outside of the 5-year statue of limitations period."
Nevertheless, Stephen Gillers, professor of legal ethics at New York University, told the Globe that the pardons controversy "is a legitimate campaign issue." The controversy resurfaced last week after Hollywood mogul David Geffen criticized the Clintons over the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who was indicted on tax evasion, commodities fraud and other charges and fled to Switzerland. Rich's ex-wife Denise had been a major contributor to Democratic causes – including Hillary's Senate campaign. As NewsMax reported last week, Geffen – who had been close to the Clintons, turned his back on them after the Rich pardon. He was angry that Clinton had rebuffed Geffen's request for a pardon for Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist Geffen believes was falsely convicted of two 1975 murders.
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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