Clinton Pardon of Marc Rich Decried

Tuesday, January 23rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) â€” New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Congress should look into former President Clinton's pardon of a multibillionaire fugitive whose ex-wife is a Clinton friend and Democratic fund-raiser. And the local federal prosecutor said her office was not consulted.

``I don't see a pardon for somebody who ran away as a fugitive,'' Giuliani said Monday, referring to Clinton's weekend pardon of commodities trader Marc Rich. ``He's involved in $150 million in tax evasion and the president just wiped that away.''

Rich, who fled to Switzerland, was indicted in 1983 by a federal grand jury on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with the enemy and evading more than $48 million in income taxes â€” crimes that could have earned him more than 300 years in prison.

In New York, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said her office was unaware that a pardon for Rich was being considered.

``The Department of Justice was also bypassed in a number of other pardon applications for defendants from this district,'' she said in a statement Monday.

Giuliani said the pardon is questionable particularly because Rich's ``family members raised enormous amounts of money for the president.''

``I think it's worth Congress looking into it,'' said Giuliani, who as a federal prosecutor had pursued Rich.

While Congress could review Saturday's pardon, it has no authority to overturn Clinton's action.

Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, wasn't involved in the pardon and ``was as surprised as anyone'' by it, said her spokesman, Bobby Zarem. He said Giuliani is ``just trying to pull a political thing. It has no basis in reality.''

But The New York Times reported Tuesday that Ms. Rich had written a letter Dec. 6, solicited by her ex-husband's lawyers, urging a pardon and saying, ``Exile for 17 years is enough.'' Lawyer Robert F. Fink told the newspaper she called the White House and ``made it clear she wanted to happen.''

Clinton wouldn't talk about it Monday.

``I'm out of office now,'' he told reporters outside his new home in suburban Westchester County just north of New York City. ``I'm not talking anymore.''

On Sunday, Clinton said Rich's Washington attorney, Jack Quinn, convinced him of the merits of a pardon.

``I spent a lot of personal time talking (about this case) because it's an unusual case, but Quinn made a strong case, and I would suggest he was right on the merits,'' Clinton said.

Quinn, who once worked at the White House for President Clinton, was unavailable for comment, his office said Monday. Fink also did not return a call seeking comment.

Switzerland has refused to extradite Rich, who was accused of making huge profits through an illegal oil pricing scheme in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. He also was accused of making oil deals with Iran during the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Fugitive Lookout notice.

Federal records show Denise Rich contributed at least $7,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's successful U.S. Senate campaign as well as $1,000 to Giuliani's aborted Senate run. A financial supporter of the Gore presidential campaign, she also gave more than $200,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

On Jan. 29, she is to be host of a welcome home party at her Fifth Avenue penthouse for Andrew Cuomo, Clinton's housing secretary who is considering running for governor of New York in 2002.