Clinton defends Marc Rich pardon, critics not swayed

WASHINGTON - President Clinton gave his fullest defense yet of the Marc Rich pardon yesterday, but failed to silence critics who argue that political donations and connections helped the fugitive financier's cause.

"I want every American to know that, while you may disagree with this decision, I made it on the merits as I saw them, and I take full responsibility for it," Clinton wrote in an OP-ED column in The New York Times.

"The suggestion that I granted the pardons because Mr. Rich's former wife, Denise, made political contributions and contributed to the Clinton library foundation is utterly false."

Clinton also wrote that three well-known Republican lawyers who once represented Rich "reviewed and advocated" the case for his pardon. All three denied that assertion. "I was astounded," one said.

The former president's last-minute pardon of Rich, who has lived in Switzerland since fleeing a 1983 indictment on tax evasion and other charges, has prompted an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York and congressional hearings.

Investigators want to know whether Rich bought his pardon by passing money through his ex-wife, Denise Rich, who has acknowledged making large contributions both to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate race and to the presidential library. Democratic Party sources have put the library donation at $450,000.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a senior member of a Senate Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing the pardon, said there are "a great many questions which the former president has left unanswered."

"He does not say why he did not talk to the prosecuting attorneys. He does not say why he didn't talk to the pardon attorney for the Department of Justice" and didn't follow their regulations, Specter said on NBC's **Meet the Press.**

"Clinton cited eight reasons for his decision, five of which he said were directly related to his conclusion that the case was improperly handled when criminal charges were filed in 1983.