Jun 29, 2001

Roger Clinton Refuses to Answer Questions on Travelers Checks

By Jesse J. Holland Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton's brother is refusing to answer questions from Congress about how he got $250,000 in travelers checks from banks in Taiwan and Venezuela. The investigators are looking into the former president's last-minute pardons in January.

In a letter, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said Roger Clinton had deposited travelers checks of $125,000 on Dec. 15, 1998, $25,000 on July 12, 1999, and $100,000 on Nov. 30, 1999. The travelers checks were mostly from Taiwan and Venezuela, wrote Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

"Who purchased these travelers checks?" Burton asked Roger Clinton's lawyer, Bart Williams of Los Angeles.

Burton has been investigating whether there was a money for pardons deal involved in President Clinton's pardons last January hours before he left office.

Roger Clinton's lawyer wrote back that the president's brother was declining to answer the committee's questions. Williams complained about the congressional probe, saying that "something more than an inquiry by the committee into presidential clemency decisions is afoot."

Democrats have accused Burton for years of having a vendetta against the Clintons. Burton has denied the accusations.

Roger Clinton, who has denied soliciting or receiving payments for helping to arrange White House pardons, has refused Burton's request to talk to House investigators.

The committee has also asked for explanations of payments from Anna Gambino, the daughter of Rosario Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker, to Roger Clinton.

Anna Gambino wrote Roger Clinton a $50,000 check in Sept. 27, 1999. Prosecutors say Rosario Gambino is an associate of the Gambino crime family.

The White House counsel's office told the Justice Department that Rosario Gambino was under consideration for a pardon and asked the department to review his criminal record. Gambino never received a pardon.

The controversy over whether the Clinton administration offered pardons for money began in the weeks after the president's final day in office, when he granted 177 clemencies and commutations.

Three cases drew instant criticism: the pardon of then-fugitive commodities broker Marc Rich, commutations for four Hasidic Jews convicted of fraud and an allegation that Roger Clinton received up to $200,000 for promising to help a Texas man win a pardon.

AP-ES-06-29-01 1141EDT

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001