Is this hope or change?

Holder’s reputation dinged by Marc Rich pardon:

The last time Washington attorney Eric Holder participated in a high-profile vetting, it was for fugitive financier Marc Rich.

The episode in 2001 became the final scandal of the Clinton administration and landed Holder, at the time the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, in the middle of a congressional investigation.

Panel Says Top Justice Dept. Aide Held Information on Rich’s Pardon (Eric Holder)

A forthcoming Congressional report on the last-minute pardons by President Bill Clinton says Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was a ”willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing” a pardon for Marc Rich, the financier.

The 476-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, harshly criticizes the Clinton White House for its handling of the 177 pardons and commutations granted on its last day.

But the report, by the House Government Reform Committee — whose chairman is Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who was a persistent critic of Mr. Clinton — also takes the Bush administration to task for refusing to turn over pardon-related documents that may shed light on the White House deliberations. Mr. Clinton does not oppose the release of those documents.

The most controversial pardon went to Mr. Rich, a commodities trader who fled the country in 1983 rather than face trial on charges of tax evasion, racketeering and trading with the enemy. The report says that Mr. Rich’s lawyers tried to circumvent prosecutors, who would oppose the pardon, and take their case straight to the White House.

“Guilty as sin, free as a bird, it’s a great country”

UPDATE: Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chief

[Fannie Mae] failed to disclose to OFHEO in a timely manner a post-employment agreement with former CEO James Johnson that provided him with substantial compensation in addition to that already provided upon his termination as a Fannie Mae employee:.

Shortly after the release of the September 2004 OFHEO report, an article in the December 23, 2004, Washington Post entitled “High Pay at Fannie Mae for the Well-Connected,” suggested that 1998 compensation for former Fannie Mae CEO James Johnson “was [reported to be] $6 million to $7 million a year,” in 1998. The total compensation in 1998 for Mr. Johnson was, in fact, substantially more.

An initial review of the 1999 Fannie Mae Proxy Statement “Summary Compensation Table” suggests the source of the Washington Post figure on 1998 compensation for Mr. Johnson. A close read of that proxy, including footnotes, shows that the Table itself listed only a small portion of the actual 1998 long-term compensation of Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson used a program available to only very senior Fannie Mae executives (Executive Vice President and above) to defer a sizable amount of earned Performance Share Plan shares. Fannie Mae disclosed in a footnote to the Summary Compensation table that Mr. Johnson deferred 111,623 shares; the actual value of the shares did not show up in the Summary Compensation Table.

Fannie Mae talking points for that period anticipated possible questions about hiding the compensation of Mr. Johnson. The talking points included several questions and answers: (bolded emphasis in original):

Gimme a break. He’s hiding his compensation. To the contrary, its all quite clearly accounted for in the proxy. What he is doing is deferring compensation.

Why is he doing that? It is not appropriate for me to discuss Mr. Johnson’s financial planning.

He’s trying to hide how much he’s made, isn’t he? Again, we’ve disclosed all cash compensation and stock-based awards over the past three years. It couldn’t be more transparent.

The way you disclose it isn’t the easiest thing to follow. We account for all options ever granted to Mr. Johnson and to our other senior executives. We account for all options they each continue to hold and those they have exercised. There’s really no problem following it at all.

An internal Fannie Mae Gross Wage Analysis for Mr. Johnson for 1998 provided a clearer estimate of the actual 1998 compensation of Mr. Johnson. It showed total wages and other earnings to Mr. Johnson of nearly $21 million: