Senator Vows to Raise Pardon Issue in Hearings on AG Nominee Holder
Republican Sen. Arlen Specter says Eric Holder’s role in a controversial pardon will be a “big question” at his confirmation hearing for U.S. attorney general.
Holder’s involvement in the pardon of fugitive financier March Rich, “the biggest misstep of his career,” has raised the hackles of some Republicans, the New York Times reports. Critics point out that Rich’s former wife had made large donations to the Clinton presidential library and Democratic causes.
Holder had told President Clinton that his recommendation on a pardon for Rich, accused of tax evasion, was “neutral, leaning toward” favorable. “These four words have stalked him since,” according to an op-ed column in the Washington Post.
Holder’s supporters claim he was made the scapegoat for Clinton’s decision to pardon Rich. But the New York Times says its investigation shows Holder was more involved in the pardon than his supporters acknowledge.
Holder, then the deputy attorney general, kept Rich’s pardon request alive through more than a half dozen contacts with Rich’s lawyers, the Times says. He bypassed usual Justice Department channels and took part in discussions without a full briefing from prosecutors about the facts of the case.
Rich’s lawyer was former White House counsel Jack Quinn, “a certified power broker,” according to the Post op-ed. The Times story says Holder had actually suggested that Rich hire a lawyer such as Quinn in a conversation with a public relations executive who ended up seated next to him at a corporate dinner.
Holder’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, told the Times that Holder did nothing improper and that his conversations about the case were routine. Holder had assumed Quinn was going through the normal channels, Weingarten said. “There’s no question that Quinn played him, and it was astute by Quinn because he did catch Eric unawares,” he told the newspaper.
