Controversial Presidential Pardons - Clinton

President Clinton's most controversial pardon was of billionaire financier Marc Rich. His connection with the political and business elite of both parties demonstrates that the differences among those in power are less distinct than the differences between those in power and those out of power. For example:

After hiring prominent Republican lawyers during the Reagan and Bush administrations—Leonard Garment, former Nixon White House counsel, William Bradford Reynolds, once an official of the Reagan Justice Department, and Lewis Libby, now chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney—Rich hired a top Democratic lawyer, Jack Quinn, to give him direct access to Clinton.

Quinn, former White House counsel, runs his law practice with Ed Gillespie, a key Bush adviser and former head of the GOP.

In addition, Clinton pardoned Susan McDougal (Whitewater), former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros (lied to FBI investigators about payments to his mistress) and ex-CIA chief John Deutch ("forced out at the CIA when he contradicted White House claims that U.S. missile strikes on Iraq were effective").

A list of Clinton's pardons (1993-2000)