THE scandal surrounding the Clintons, becoming known as pardongate, took another twist yesterday when it emerged that an aide of Senator Hillary Clinton helped secure presidential pardons for two criminals.
The revelation came a day after her brother, Hugh Rodham, a lawyer, was forced to repay #250,000 he had earned for successfully obtaining presidential pardons for two criminals from Bill Clinton on the day he left office.
It was also revealed that Roger Clinton, the former president's half brother, was investigated for trying to sell presidential pardons.
A ''heartbroken'' Mrs Clinton said last night she had been unaware of the payments to Mr Rodham. ''I was very disappointed and saddened by this whole matter. It came as a surprise to me and it was very disturbing,'' she said.
Her husband is already under fire from friends and foes for granting a pardon to Marc Rich, a fugitive millionaire financier, whose ex-wife helped bankroll the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock and is a major contributor to Democratic funds.
As she spoke, lawyers said Mrs Clinton's Senate campaign treasurer helped secure two last-minute pardons.
The treasurer, William Cunningham, a New York lawyer, is the law partner of Harold Ickes, a long-time Clinton adviser. He said Mr Ickes referred the two Arkansas men, both Republicans, to him about a week before Mr Clinton left office. They are Robert Clinton Fain and James Lowell Manning, convicted in the 1980s on tax charges.
''Harold does not do this kind of work, and we are partners, so Harold contacted me and asked if I would speak with them. I told them I would be happy to review the paperwork and submit the applications,'' Mr Cunningham said.
He said his and Ickes's firm was paid just #2750 for the work of preparing and sending the applications to the justice department. He said neither contacted the White House nor discussed the pardons with Mrs Clinton or the former president.
Mr Cunningham said he did not believe his role as Mrs Clinton's treasurer during her Senate campaign in New York last year had any effect on the ex-president's decision.
Mr Ickes said he did not talk to either Clinton about the two men.
The revelation comes one day after Mrs Clinton's brother returned #250,000 he collected for helping secure a pardon and a prison commutation for two other clients. At the request of the Clintons, Mr Rodham refunded the cash. The Clintons said they were unaware of the arrangements.
The 140 pardons and 36 prison sentence commutations Mr Clinton granted just hours before George W Bush took office a month ago have generated criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. A congressional committee and the US Attorney's office are investigating.
Another former president, Jimmy Carter, accused Mr Clinton of abusing his power and bringing disgrace to the White House with his last-minute pardon of Rich.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article