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President Bill Clinton was widely criticized for some pardons and other acts of executive clemency; collectively, these have been called Pardongate. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardons. She was later replaced by James Comey. The Federal Election Commission, responding to a formal complaint made by Judicial Watch, also investigated Denise Rich's donations to Hillary's Senate campaign. Both Comey and the FEC cleared the Clintons of any wrongdoing.
FALN Pardons of 1999
On August 11 1999, Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States usually in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations. None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, and all of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House. Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticized by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police * Congress condemned the action, with a vote of 95-2 in the Senate and 311-41 in the House. Justice Department prevented the FBI from testifying at the hearings.[http://cgi.cnn.com/US/9909/14/fbi.faln/" target="_blank" >* President Clinton cited executive privilege for his refusal to turn over some documents to Congress related to his decision to offer clemency to members of the FALN terrorist group.
Pardons signed on final day in office
Clinton issued 140 pardons on his last day of office.* It is common practice for Presidents to grant a number of pardons shortly before leaving office, but Clinton's last day list was more numerous than those of previous presidents and some find his pardons more controversial. Pardons of particular note include:
- Carlos Vignali was pardoned for cocaine trafficking.
- Almon Glenn Braswell was pardoned of his mail fraud and perjury convictions, even while a federal investigation was underway regarding additional money laundering and tax evasion charges.Braswell and Carlos Vignali each paid approximately $200,000 to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, to represent their respective cases for clemency. Hugh Rodham returned the payments after they were disclosed to the public. Braswell would later invoke the Fifth Amendment at a Senate Committee hearing in 2001, when questioned about allegations of his having systematically defrauded senior citizens of millions of dollars.[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/09/10/elderly.scams/index.html
- Marc Rich, a fugitive, was pardoned of tax evasion, after clemency pleas from Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, among many other international luminaries. Denise Rich, Marc's former wife, was a close friend of the Clintons and had made substantial donations to both Clinton's library and Hillary's Senate campaign. Several months after her last donation, emails reveal Republican attorney "Scooter" Libby asked her to approach Clinton about pardoning Marc Rich. Clinton agreed to a pardon that required Marc Rich to pay a $100,000,000 fine before he could return to the United States. According to Paul Volcker's independent investigation of Iraqi Oil-for-Food kickback schemes, Marc Rich was a middleman for several suspect Iraqi oil deals involving over 4 million barrels of oil.*
- Susan McDougal, who had already completed her sentence, was pardoned for her role in the Whitewater scandal; McDougal had served 18 months on contempt charges for refusing to testify about Clinton's role.
- Roger Clinton, the president's half-brother, on drug charges. Roger Clinton would be charged with drunk driving and disorderly conduct in an unrelated incident within a year of the pardon.* He was also briefly alleged to have been utilized in lobbying for the Braswell pardon, among others.
Republican presidential pardons
Supporters of Clinton point out that the total number of pardons Clinton granted was comparable to other presidents * and that Republican presidential pardons have also been controversial. These include President Gerald Ford's pardon of former President Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974 and President George H. W. Bush's pardons of six Reagan administration officials accused or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra affair and Orlando Bosch, a terrorist who had blown up Cubana Flight 455 killing all 76 passengers. The pardoned administration staffers included Caspar Weinberger, Reagan's Secretary of Defense, who was indicted for lying to the Iran-Contra investigation and was pardoned on Bush's last day in office, days before his trial was to begin.
See also
"Bill Clinton pardons controversy"