Like never before, the presidential pardon seems to carry a price tag.
From the $1,000 an Arkansas man’s family chipped in to Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the more than $1 million socialite-songwriter Denise Rich lavished on Democratic causes, there’s an impression that money can pave the way to freedom.
“This makes it look like there is one system of justice for those with money and influence and one system of justice for everyone else,” Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who is heading a congressional probe into former President Clinton’s pardons, said last week.
All involved – Bill and Hillary Clinton, families and friends of those who received last-minute pardons, and lawyers who lobbied the White House – insist there was no quid pro quo in any of the cases.
But congressional investigators and federal prosecutors are looking into that very question.
The first person they are turning to is Denise Rich.
The ex-wife of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich – the recipient of the most controversial pardon – has poured a staggering $1.4 million into Democratic campaigns, her lawyers have admitted.
Among those on the receiving end were Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Denise Rich also forked over a whopping $450,000 to Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.
The massive contributions and their possible link to the Rich pardon are under investigation by Congress and U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in Manhattan.
Rich is just one example, perhaps the most outlandish, of the intersection between money and the stroke of the presidential pardon pen.
Arnold Paul Prosperi, a fund-raiser for the ex-president and a convicted swindler, had his sentence commuted after he donated $45,000 for White House refurbishments.
The family of Arkansas businessman Tom Bhakta, whose tax evasion sentence was commuted, gave $1,000 to the former first lady’s campaign.
While not in the same class as Rich, the wealthy father of convicted drug trafficker Carlos Vignali dumped big contributions on numerous pols after his son was busted.
Horacio Vignali steered over $160,000 to national and California pols.
Some beneficiaries of the elder Vignali’s largesse later penned letters to the White House urging freedom for Carlos, who was doing 15 years in a federal pen for his key role in a dope ring that was caught delivering 800 pounds of coke.
Horacio Vignali also paid an exorbitantly high price for well-connected legal help with his son’s pardonrequest – writing a check to Hillary Clinton’s brother Hugh Rodham for $200,000.