-Caveat Lector- <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/01/politics/01PARD.html?pagewanted=all> March 1, 2001 A Clinton In-Law Helped Win Pair of Pardons, Despite Justice Dept. Wishes By MARC LACEY and DON VAN NATTA Jr. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 - Former President Bill Clinton's brother-in-law Tony Rodham helped obtain a presidential pardon for a Tennessee couple last March over the objections of the Justice Department, Mr. Rodham and lawyers involved in the pardon said today. Mr. Clinton pardoned Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo. The Gregorys, who live outside Nashville and own United Shows of America, a carnival company based in Smyrna, Tenn., were convicted of bank fraud in 1982 amid allegations that they had used the assets of a bank they owned to give loans to friends. They were placed on probation. The pardon frees them of the consequences of a felony conviction. The couple are also major campaign campaign contributors to both Democrats and Republicans, and they contributed to the Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tony Rodham's sister. In an interview tonight, Mr. Rodham acknowledged that he had asked the president to pardon Mr. and Mrs. Gregory, but he said he received no payment for his efforts. But Mr. Rodham does have a financial tie to the Gregorys and has worked as a consultant for Mr. Gregory for about seven years, helping him buy radio stations and expand his carnival business. In interviews tonight, neither Mr. Rodham nor Mr. Gregory would disclose the terms of their financial relationship. "I told him about Ed Gregory," Mr. Rodham said of his conversation with Mr. Clinton, adding it was the only pardon application he had mentioned to the president. "I didn't push. I told the president about Ed Gregory and that he had applied for a pardon. He's what the pardon process is all about." Mr. Clinton pardoned the Gregorys on March 15, 2000. Although this was months before the controversial batch of pardons he approved on his last day in office, the clemency for the Gregorys attracted criticism inside the Clinton administration because lawyers at the Justice Department strongly opposed it. Mr. Clinton's late flurry of pardons on Jan. 20 included two for which Hugh Rodham, Tony Rodham's brother was paid $400,000, which he later returned. They also included one for fugitive financier Marc Rich. The pardons have drawn criticism because they were approved at the White House, without substantial involvement by the Justice Department and sometimes over the objections of government lawyers. House and Senate committees, as well as federal prosecutors in New York, are investigating the scores of pardons and commutations that Mr. Clinton granted on his final day in the White House. As part of that review, investigators are also looking at earlier grants of clemency in the Clinton presidency. Asked about Mr. Clinton's pardons for the Gregorys, Julia Payne, a spokeswoman for the former president, said tonight that they were approved on the merits. "The president has said many, many people advocated pardons directly to him. But the president determines to grant or deny a pardon based on the merits," Ms. Payne said. Mr. Rodham is the third Clinton relative to be involved in pardon decisions. His brother, was hired by two people who obtained clemency in January. He returned nearly $400,000 in payments for his work on two clemency applications. Mr. Clinton's half brother, Roger, urged the president to pardon six people. Their applications were rejected, former Clinton aides said. Mr. Gregory said his and his wife's applications for pardons had languished for nearly 18 months at the Justice Department. When Mr. Clinton failed to grant them in December 1999, Mr. Gregory said he asked Mr. Rodham for his help. "The only thing I ever said to Tony Rodham about the pardon is, `Tony, we've applied for the pardon, and if you can help us in any way, we'd really appreciate it,' " Mr. Gregory said. Several people involved in the pardon process said Mr. Rodham had referred to his success in helping the Gregorys gain pardons in persuading others that he had White House influence in pardon decisions. Mr. Rodham denied this. Mr. Rodham did play an active role in helping Mr. Gregory's company get the opportunity to erect a carnival on the White House lawn in June 1998. "I got a call from Tony that his sister was interested in having an old-fashioned carnival outside the White House and putting some rides up there, and he asked if we were interested," Mr. Gregory said. Former Clinton aides said that two carnival companies were considered and that Mr. Gregory's company offered to donate more services than the rival company. The Justice Department's recommendation against pardons for the Gregorys was based in part on the opposition of the United States attorney who prosecuted the case and the sentencing judge, officials said. The recommendation was a "no brainer," one official said. The negative recommendation was based on what the officials said was the unwillingness of the Gregorys to accept the criminality of their actions. An appeals court found that the couple ignored warnings of bank regulators and caused the failure of two small banks, disregarding the impact on other depositors. The officials said the White House was told that the case was among the most serious bank fraud case ever prosecuted in Alabama and that pardoning the couple would diminish the seriousness of their crimes. In the case of the Gregorys, Mr. Clinton expressed a strong desire to pardon the couple to officials at the Justice Department, officials said today. White House aides pressed Justice Department officials to grant the pardon, saying that they had strong support from friends of Mr. Clinton in Florida and Arkansas. But Justice Department officials recommended the denial of both pardons, on the grounds that the couple's crimes were too serious to qualify them for presidential clemency, lawyers said. Still, in a rare move, Mr. Clinton granted the pardons anyway. "I can think of only two cases in the years that I was involved in the pardon process that the Justice Department recommended against and the White House granted it anyway," said Margaret Love, who was the pardon lawyer from 1990 to 1997. In an interview tonight, Mr. Gregory, 63, said that he had no idea whether Mr. Rodham had played a role in his pardon. "Tony Rodham is a friend of our family," he said. He repeatedly denied paying Mr. Rodham for any help he may have given to obtain his or his wife's pardon. "Absolutely not," he said of the assertion that a business consulting contract may have been a way to pay Mr. Rodham for his help obtaining the pardons. Mr. Rodham called the notion that he had offered his services to secure pardons "absurd." Mr. Gregory said he known Mr. Clinton since he was governor of Arkansas, but he added that he met Mr. Rodham in 1995 at a Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Mr. Gregory said he never mentioned the pardon application to Mr. Clinton. In late 1998, the Gregorys applied for a pardon through their son, a lawyer in Colorado. Mr. Gregory said he grew concerned about the application because his business rivals were raising concerns that the felony convictions made the Gregorys ineligible for a lucrative contract to run the Florida state fair. Florida's agriculture commissioner, Bob Crawford, referred the couple to the Miami law firm Greenberg Taurig for help with their pardon applications, Mr. Gregory said. At the same time, Mr. Gregory said, he had asked for help from Mr. Rodham late in 1999 or early in 2000. "I remember seeing Tony at a party and I said, `You know I was sure hoping we'd get a pardon,' and I said, `If there is any way you can help us, I'd appreciate it.' He said, `I don't really get involved in that.' " Mr. Gregory added: "I didn't want to push on the guy or say anything more to him. I didn't want to push on the friendship or anything." One of Mr. Gregory's lawyers, Mark Schnapp, said today that the pardon application was accepted on its merits because Mr. Gregory's firm had contributed enormously to charity and needed the pardon to continue to conduct business in Florida. "To try to infer that anything done was improper here is a horrible injustice," Mr. Schnapp said. "He went through the right channels, through the Justice Department. To the extent that Tony Rodham did anything, he did everything in my judgment that was totally above board." Another lawyer for Mr. Gregory, Howard Vine, said tonight that he had raised the pardon application with two members of the White House counsel's office, Bruce Lindsey and Beth Nolan but that the questions were "procedural" in nature. Mr. Rodham said he told Mr. Clinton that the Gregorys' pardon applications had been filed through the Justice Department. He said he argued that pardons for the couple made good sense. "He is repentant for what he did," Mr. Rodham said of Mr. Gregory. "It was a white-collar crime involving banking irregularities. He's paid his taxes. He's run a respectful business for 40 years. He's a good guy." Mr. Rodham said the case was especially compelling because Mr. Gregory's business was suffering because some states restricted him from running state fairs because of his conviction. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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