Feds Subpoena Clinton Library Donor Records
Staff -- Library Journal, 2/19/2001
Congressional investigators have issued subpoenas to the Clinton Library Foundation in connection with possible wrongdoing involving the former president's 11th-hour pardon of Marc Rich. Rich's former wife, Denise, allegedly donated as much as $450,000 to the Library Foundation as well as $1.1 million to the Democratic Party and $109,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for the New York Senate seat. Rich and his business partner currently are somewhere abroad, having fled U.S. legal jurisdiction in 1983 after being indicted by the Justice Department for evading more than $48 million in taxes as well as charges of fraud for dealing with Iranian oil cartels during the hostage crisis. The House Committee on Government reform told the press that the subpoena to the Clinton Foundation would be for all records of contributions above $5000 and specifically for any material involving donations by Denise Rich. Clinton's lawyer asserted that such information would not be divulged without a legal brawl. Clinton himself told the press, "I made the decision to pardon Marc Richard based on what I thought was the right thing to do. Any suggestion that improper factors, including fundraising forâ?¦my library, had anything to do with the decision are absolutely false. Once the facts are out there, people will understand what I did and why, even if they may not agree with it."
