-Caveat Lector-
NYTimes
June 30, 2001
Plea Mailed to Roger Clinton Was Flagged by President
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
In the last weeks of the Clinton presidency, when Roger Clinton was
visiting the White House for a few days, a piece of mail arrived addressed
to him from the family of a convicted drug dealer looking for clemency.
The president made a note on the envelope to Meredith Cabe, a White House
lawyer who was handling hundreds of last-minute pardons.
"Meredith, looks like a case for commutation pls check out - BC," the note
reads, said a lawyer who has seen the document.
It is not clear what role Roger Clinton played in moving the application of
the convicted drug dealer, Steven Michael Griggs, to the head of the line,
and Mr. Griggs did not receive a presidential pardon. But the document
provides the first evidence that President Bill Clinton lent his support to
any of his half brother's efforts to secure pardons for felons convicted of
drug dealing, bank fraud and tax evasion.
Bart Williams, Roger Clinton's lawyer, said his client had received nothing
of value from Mr. Griggs, whom he did not know well. His plea for a
pardon, Mr. Williams said, was brought to Roger Clinton's attention by a
longtime friend from Arkansas who had a relationship with the Griggs
family.
Roger Clinton has insisted in interviews that he took no money for pardons
and that he only interceded in the case of a handful of "dear friends."
Gary Krupkin, a Dallas lawyer who has represented Mr. Griggs, said he
believed his client was introduced not long ago to Roger Clinton through
Daley McDaniel, a house mover in Hot Springs, Ark., who was a friend of
Bill and Roger Clinton's mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley.
Mr. Griggs is the son of Chief Carl Grey Owl Griggs of the Northern
Cherokee Nation of Missouri and Arkansas. Steven Griggs is serving a
20-year sentence at a federal prison in Fort Worth and could not be reached
for comment yesterday.
Mr. Griggs pleaded guilty in 1992 to possessing the chemicals required to
make the illegal drug methamphetamine. Lawyers involved in his case say
one reason he drew such a long sentence was that he fled after his
conviction and was captured a year later.
Mr. Griggs, who once owned several furniture stores, has spent the last
seven years in prison studying law, according to his lawyers. Last July,
the Justice Department received a petition for clemency that his lawyers
say he prepared himself.
The Justice Department expects pardon candidates to have served their time
before applying.
And with a backlog of applications, it can take months for the department
to consider a submission.
Roger Clinton was seen as a way to speed up the process, Mr. Krupkin said.
"You can submit anything to the Justice Department, and they're a
bureaucracy, and you'll get bogged down in it.
Roger Clinton was the president's brother, and he's got the ear of the
president, no question."
Mr. McDaniel, who introduced Roger Clinton to the Griggses, had come to
know Chief Griggs when he sought to become a member of the tribe some years
ago. He was officially adopted in October 2000.
The tribe is not recognized as a sovereign nation but has been seeking that
status so it can open a casino, Mr. Krupkin said. "The chief and I have
spoken about doing a casino for a long time," said Mr. Krupkin, who also
said the tribe's leadership believed Mr. McDaniel's connections could be
helpful on that front, too.
Mr. Krupkin said Roger Clinton had spoken to Chief Griggs about his son's
predicament by telephone. "I don't think Roger ever came and shook the
hand of the chief," said Mr. Krupkin.
He said the family was shattered when the White House around Christmas
released a list of pardons without Mr. Griggs's name on it.
On Jan. 1, relatives sent by overnight mail a letter addressed to Roger
Clinton in care of the usher's office of the White House, Mr. Krupkin said.
It contained a letter written by another of Mr. Griggs's lawyers to the
Bureau of Prisons in 1999 attesting to Mr. Griggs's desire to turn his life
around.
The return address on the envelope that carried the last-minute plea was
that of the Northern Cherokee Nation's offices in Clinton, Mo.
Asked why Roger Clinton would have helped someone he barely knew, Mr.
Williams said there was little evidence to show that his client helped the
Griggs family in any meaningful way, even if he delivered the letter to his
brother's staff.
"The fact he's received something from someone and passes it on does not
mean he's made a recommendation or helped them in any way," Mr. Williams
said.
The appearance of the former president's handwriting on a document
recommending a pardon for Mr. Griggs makes it more likely that Bill Clinton
may yet have to answer questions about the episode.
A Congressional committee and the United States attorney for the Southern
District of New York are examining whether Roger Clinton accepted money for
his assistance in securing pardons.
One Texas convict has testified that his family gave associates of Roger
Clinton at least $225,000 for a pardon that never came.
Julia Payne, Bill Clinton's spokeswoman, did not return a phone call late
last night seeking comment. But the former president has said all his
clemency decisions were made strictly on the merits of the cases.
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