http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1319952/Hillary-bought-votes-with-fraud-pardon.html

January 28, 2001 Sunday Final Edition

Scandal creeps up on Hillary Clinton: Pardons for four Hasidic convicts linked to supporters

Daily Telegraph James Langton

Hillary Clinton was forced to lie low this weekend amid a growing storm over allegations that her campaign "bought" Jewish votes in exchange for a White House pardon for four Hasidic men convicted of fraud.

The former First Lady, now a United States Senator, abruptly cancelled a series of public appearances as details began to emerge of the deal struck on the last day of the Clinton presidency.

She captured almost 100 per cent of the votes in the Hasidic community of New Square, 32 km outside of New York, though neighbouring areas went strongly for Rick Lazio, her Republican opponent.

Clinton was given an enthusiastic reception at New Square during the Senate race last summer, with promises that a street would be named in her honour. Republican campaigning in the village stopped after it became clear that the 1,500 votes were locked up for the First Lady.

It emerged last week that representatives for the four men, who were convicted in 1998 of a $40-million swindle in which government funds were channelled into a non-existent religious school, met the Clintons in Washington only weeks before the inauguration of President George W. Bush.

Their names were subsequently added to a list of nearly 200 pardons and sentence commutations released by President Clinton.

The four Hasidic men, serving prison sentences of 30 months to seven years, had their jail terms cut by up to two-thirds. They claimed that the money was used to fund other community projects.

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On Jan 16, a member of the prosecution team wrote to the president, saying that a pardon would "send a message to the worldwide community that its pursuit of its own religious customs justified fraud against the government."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/01/nyregion/metro-matters-the-senator-doth-protest-too-little.html

The New York Times February 1, 2001 Thursday

The Senator Doth Protest Too Little

Metro Matters; The Senator Doth Protest Too Little

By JOYCE PURNICK

Published: February 1, 2001

LET us accept Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's contention that she was completely uninvolved in the presidential pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive commodities trader accused of tax evasion. Ditto the former president's decision to reduce the sentences of four Hasidic men from New Square, N.Y., who were convicted of defrauding the government.

The facts argue for a more cynical interpretation, since Mr. Rich's former wife, Denise, is a prominent Democratic fund-raiser who pleaded her ex's case to Bill Clinton. She is so generous that she even gave the Clintons more than $7,000 worth of furniture for their new homes. And New Square, in Rockland County, is the only Hasidic community in the state (each votes as a bloc) to overwhelmingly support Mrs. Clinton. Then, after the election, Mrs. Clinton attended a White House meeting between the men's supporters and her husband; Mr. Clinton subsequently commuted the original sentences of 30 to 78 months to terms of 24 to 30 months.

So the facts do seem to undermine Mrs. Clinton's assertions of disinterest, but even if she was indeed above the fray, even politically naïve, she still has a problem -- a big one. That problem is one of perception. It sure looks as if the junior senator has benefited from a quid pro quo, and she has done little to dispel that dangerous impression

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questions she was asked concerned the pardons, gifts and commutations. She had ample opportunity to thunder or at least show some indignation.

She could have seized the chance to send a strong message that she is not for sale and that nobody had dare get the wrong impression. She did not. She was cool, steely, contained. Her legalistic answers were reminiscent of her husband's infamously careful parsing of language when he was accused of infidelity. ("There is not a sexual relationship" -- emphasis added.)

The senator showed no anger, deflected questions with studied calm, never once drew herself up and said, "I don't make deals and I never will." Instead, Mrs. Clinton denied a connection between that White House meeting and the subsequent commutations of the Hasidic men, said she had no opinion about her husband's decisions, delivered a civics lecture about the powers of the executive branch and referred reporters to Mr. Clinton's transition office.

Asked about the Rich pardon and the reduced sentences of the Hasidic men, who were convicted of inventing a fictitious religious school to attract millions of dollars in government aid, she said: "I have no opinion. I had no opinion before, I had no opinion at the time, and I have no opinion now."

But, persisted a reporter, what about the perception of a quid pro quo?

Said the new senator: "I have to say, I've been around politics for so many years. I have no way of even guessing, let alone controlling, what anyone will say or think. I can only do the best job I can, and that's what I intend to do. There wasn't any connection and, you know, people will have to make their own judgments about it."

They have.