Right Voices

I read this article and was dumbfounded that the author was more concerned that Congress has not tried to limit the pardon powers of the POTUS, rather than focus on the fact that investigations into the pardons themselves didn’t amount to anything other than a big waste of our money!

Rich received a pardon for charges, dating to 1983, of tax evasion, tax fraud and violating U.S. embargoes by trading with Iran during the U.S. hostage crisis. Both he and business partner Pincus Green were in Switzerland at the time of their indictment, and neither returned to the U.S.

The Rich pardon sparked bipartisan outrage and congressional investigations to determine whether Rich’s ex-wife, Denise Rich, received a quid pro quo for contributing approximately $1 million to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate campaign, the Clinton presidential library fund and other Democratic causes.

A Federal Election Commission inquiry into whether Denise Rich had donated money and furniture to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in exchange for a pardon concluded there was not a quid pro quo.
Marc Rich, however, returned to the post-pardon spotlight when allegations arose over his involvement in Iraq’s oil-for-food program, which funneled $1.8 billion in illicit profits to Saddam Hussein.
In early 2005 Rich told congressional investigators that he was authorized to buy and sell oil as part of the program, though he denied knowledge of any bribery schemes involved.

But congressional investigators thought he was not being completely forthcoming. “Mr. Rich’s answers were non-responsive, which is no surprise because we believe he knows more than he wishes to acknowledge,” a spokesman for then-House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) told Fox News at the time.

Later that year, a U.N.-backed investigation into the oil-for-food scandal reported that Marc Rich & Co. had secretly financed 4 million barrels of oil under a contract given to a French-based shell company.
According to the report, “Surcharges were imposed on the oil, [and] Marc Rich & Co. directed BNP Paris [Banque Nationale de Paris] not to disclose its identity to BNP NY in connection with its financing of the U.N. contract.”

Despite the report, Rich & Co. continued to categorically deny any wrongdoing in the oil-for-food case.

Braswell received a pardon for a 1983 conviction on perjury and mail fraud for false claims made by his mail-order business, Gero Vita International, based on the effectiveness of a treatment for baldness.

It was subsequently revealed that Braswell had paid Hugh Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brother, a sum of $200,000 to secure his pardon. Rodham later returned the money, as well as $200,000 he had received to lobby for the commutation of drug trafficker Carlos Vignali, at the behest of the Clintons.

These kinds of problems that arose after the pardon are not limited to Bubba. I think we need a new way of investigating…