ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Morning News

House Committee Will Further Investigate Clinton's Pardons

Aired March 1, 2001 - 9:21 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the former president, Bill Clinton, and the flap over his 11th-hour pardons -- excuse me -- the scrutiny gets -- a little flu bug left there; I'll be OK.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Pardon you.

KAGAN: Yes, pardon me; thank you very much.

The scrutiny will get a bit more intense as several Clinton confidants are expected to testify before a House committee.

Let's save the day with Jeanne Meserve, who will take over from here.

Jeanne, help me here.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Daryn.

First, a new twist in the story. Now it turns out that Tony Rodham, another brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, petitioned his brother-in-law, the former president, for pardons for two carnival owners who'd been convicted of bank fraud back in 1982.

Bob Franken is following the pardon story for us up on Capitol Hill.

They got their pardons, Bob, didn't they -- but not in that last- minute flurry?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, their pardons occurred in March of last year -- so, no, it wasn't in the last-minute flurry. And the issue here is, did Tony Rodham get paid for doing this. The answer from him is no, although he did directly approached President Clinton about this. However, he has been a consultant; he has worked for the couple, has done work on various radio station and the like. So some people are saying that there is, in effect, an implied payment, something that Tony Rodham denies.

MESERVE: And now to the hearings today before the Government Reform Committee. Beth Dozoretz, former finance chair of the Democratic National Committee will be there; will she talk?

FRANKEN: She will not. She has made it very clear through her lawyer that she is going to take the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Her lawyer cited, quote, "the pendency of other investigations" -- as you know, there's a federal criminal investigation.

Her lawyer asked that she not appear. You see her, by the way, playing golf with her close friend President Clinton. Her lawyer asked that she not appear at this hearing -- not go through the embarrassment of taking the Fifth. The committee said, no, if you're not going to cooperate, we're going to make you, in front of the cameras, take the Fifth Amendment.

So what we're going to see is they're going to ask her a couple of questions -- not the 30 that they did some other figure a couple of years ago. She will take the Fifth, presumably, and then will be excused.

MESERVE: Skip Rutherford of the Clinton Library Foundation -- we expected at one point to see him; will we?

FRANKEN: We will not; and the reason is because they don't need to browbeat him about the library's refusal to turn over records to the committee -- a deal was worked out yesterday. Rutherford is the president of the library, by the way -- head of the board of directors of the library. They worked out a deal where the committee's top members and lawyers were given access to some of the records with the option of getting some of the other records later. That satisfied concerns; Skip Rutherford is off the hook.

MESERVE: There will be three other people there -- Clinton aides. What is the committee hoping to learn from these three?

FRANKEN: These are people who were in the White House at the last moments of the administration. We have John Podesta, who was the White House chief of staff; Beth Nolan, who was the White House counsel; Bruce Lindsey, who has been close to Bill Clinton and an adviser since their days in Arkansas -- throughout this administration; also Jack Quinn, former White House counsel who was the Marc Rich attorney in all this.

They are going to be appearing without having to worry about executive privilege. The president, of course, could make the discussions about this off limits, but Bill Clinton has given permission for them to continue. He has waived that right.

MESERVE: Now, these three opposed the pardon of Marc Rich, did they not?

FRANKEN: They did, and they -- we'll probably hear from all of them that, while they opposed it, they do not believe that Bill Clinton did anything wrong. They believe -- at least John Podesta is expected to testify that what happened is there was this last-minute flurry of pardon work that had to be done and there was an awful lot of confusion and that may have accounted for some of the controversy.

MESERVE: OK; Bob Franken on Capitol Hill, thanks. We'll be following that story throughout the day.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top