-Caveat Lector-
Another Day, Another Clinton Aide Peddling Influence
Wednesday, February 28, 2001
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Clinton administration aide drew on
his White House ties in seeking presidential clemency for his
cousin, whose prison term for laundering money for Colombian drug
traffickers was commuted on Bill Clinton's last day in office.
David Dreyer, a partner in a Washington communications firm, said
Tuesday that he spoke about three times last year to White House
chief of staff John Podesta and once to White House lawyer Beth
Nolan about the case of Harvey Weinig, a New York City lawyer.
Podesta called Dreyer on Jan. 20 to say that President Clinton
had commuted Weinig's sentence, Dreyer said.
Weinig was sentenced in 1996 to 11 years in prison for laundering
tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds and failing to
report a kidnapping.
With the commutation, Weinig is scheduled to be released from
federal prison April 16. He will have served over five years.
Last summer, Weinig's family "asked me to help; I took the
information to people I knew in connection with my White House
service and I let them know I cared about Harvey," said Dreyer,
who was deputy White House communications director from 1993 to
1995 and then spent two years at the Treasury Department.
Dreyer said the Weinig family was "floored" in 1995 because they
felt the prison term was much longer than warranted and Weinig's
sentence was longer than that of other defendants in the case.
Washington attorney Reid Weingarten began exploring the
possibility of a commutation about a year ago, filing an
application with the Justice Department's pardon attorney. The
Justice Department on Tuesday declined to say what the pardon
attorney recommended.
"I met with Reid and he gave me a three-ring binder on Harvey's
case that was going through the pardon attorney," said Dreyer,
who presented the cover memo from the binder to Podesta.
After Weinig's name didn't turn up among Clinton's pre-Christmas
commutations, "I called John Podesta and he said it was still
under consideration," Dreyer said.
Dreyer said he spoke briefly to Nolan about the case at a White
House staff party.
Podesta's office on Tuesday declined comment, referring to his
comments Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Podesta said then that he recommended the Weinig commutation "on
humanitarian grounds. ... It was done on the basis of a
humanitarian plea that was made to us by someone we knew who had
rendered good public service."
U.S. prosecutors said Weinig was one of the heads of a major
international ring operating in New York and other cities,
including in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Puerto Rico and
Colombia.
Alfonso Valdivieso, Colombia's United Nations ambassador who as
top prosecutor during the mid-1990s oversaw efforts to put drug
traffickers behind bars, called Clinton's action "sordid."
"This gives us the notion that the anti-drug fight is
asymmetrical," former Foreign Minister Rodrigo Pardo said of
Weinig's commutation. "The United States demands more from
Colombia than it is disposed to do itself."
Colombian President Andres Pastrana met with President Bush in
Washington on Tuesday to discuss U.S. support for drug-fighting
programs in the world's largest cocaine-producing nation. The
Weinig commutation didn't come up, said a senior Bush
administration official who briefed reporters on condition of
anonymity.
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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
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