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 hen
the House Government Reform Committee released its report on the
presidential pardon scandal last week, the consensus reaction was
that it contained little new information on the controversy that
consumed the end of Bill Clinton's presidency. But in fact, the
voluminous report — it's as thick as a big-city phone directory
— is filled with new information. It's just that some of the
most intriguing details aren't about pardons at all.
Among them
are new revelations about the tangled finances of the former president's
brother, Roger Clinton. In the course of the pardon investigation,
committee lawyers uncovered unexplained deposits of hundreds of
thousands of dollars in blank traveler's checks in his bank account.
They also found evidence that Clinton — a rock and roll singer,
but never a terribly successful one — was paid enormous sums
by foreign governments for performances overseas. And they discovered
a $15,000 money transfer from Bill Clinton to his brother at a time
when Roger Clinton faced growing pressure to tell authorities what
he knew about the pardon matter.
Blank
Checks
When
committee investigators examined Roger Clinton's bank records for
the years 1998 to 2000, they discovered that he had deposited large
numbers of traveler's checks from foreign countries into his bank
account — money that appeared to have nothing to do with Clinton's
attempts to win pardons for friends and associates in the last months
of his brother's administration. According to the committee's report,
the traveler's checks were blank when they were given to Roger Clinton;
he both signed and countersigned them when depositing them into
his account. "Usually, the individual who purchases traveler's
checks signs them when they are purchased, so that they cannot be
stolen or used by an unauthorized individual," the report notes.
"The fact that the buyer [of the traveler's checks] did not
sign them and gave them to Clinton blank suggests that the funds
were intentionally provided to Clinton in a manner calculated to
conceal their origin."
The sums were
considerable. According to the report, on December 1, 1998, Clinton
deposited $15,000 in American Express traveler's checks in his account.
The checks had been purchased in Taiwan by a person named Huang
Xian Wen — committee investigators were never able to figure
out who that was. One week later, on December 8, 1998, Clinton deposited
$23,000 in American Express traveler's checks, also purchased by
Huang Xian Wen in Taiwan.
On December
15, Clinton deposited four separate groups of traveler's checks.
First was $90,000 in Citicorp checks from an unknown source in Taiwan.
Next was $29,000, also in checks from an unknown source. Then there
was $4,000 in Visa checks from a person named Lin Mei Guang in Taiwan,
and finally $2,000 in American Express checks from Huan Xian Wen.
According to
the report, Roger Clinton made no more large deposits of traveler's
checks until July 12, 1999, when he deposited $20,000 in American
Express checks from an unknown source and $5,000 in Citicorp checks
from a person named Sook-Eun Jang in South Korea. Four months later,
on November 30, 1999, Clinton deposited $22,000 in Citicorp and
Visa checks from unknown sources in Taiwan. That same day, he deposited
$38,000 from a man named Pedro Jose Garboza Matos in Venezuela.
Then he deposited $40,000 from a completely unknown source.
Over the next
nine months, Clinton deposited smaller amounts of blank traveler's
checks totaling $46,000, mostly from sources in Taiwan and South
Korea. In all, he put $335,000 in traveler's checks into his bank
account between December 1998 and August 2000. Even after more than
a year of work investigators were never able to accurately track
their source or their purpose. The committee report says simply,
"Why Roger Clinton received these substantial sums of money
from overseas is unknown."
$15,000
From Bill
When committee investigators inquired about Clinton's deposits of
traveler's checks, they also discovered that he received another
infusion of money from a different source — his brother, the
former president. This is what happened, according to committee
sources:
On February
22, 2001, after the pardon scandal exploded, Government Reform Committee
chairman Dan Burton sent a letter to Roger Clinton asking a few
questions about the pardons and also making a request for documents.
About three weeks later, on March 13, when Burton had not heard
from Clinton, he sent another letter asking Clinton to voluntarily
sit down for an interview — and also informing him that the
committee had issued a subpoena for any documents Clinton might
have that were relevant to the case.
On March 22,
committee lawyers learned that Los Angeles attorney Bart Williams
was representing Roger Clinton. On that same day, investigators
talked to Williams who, sources say, gave the committee the impression
that Roger Clinton would voluntarily submit to an interview.
The next day,
March 23, according to the report, Roger Clinton received a wire
transfer of $15,000 from a Citibank account which bore the title,
"E.C.934(A) c/o Eric Hothem." Hothem, investigators later
learned, was an aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton when the Clintons
were in the White House. When Burton asked Hothem about the $15,000,
he referred the committee to David Kendall, the former president's
personal lawyer. According to the report, Kendall told the committee,
"The account is a personal Citibank account of former President
and Senator Clinton. The transfer you inquire about was a loan by
President Clinton to his brother so that he might retain counsel
to represent him in the committee's and other investigations."
(The committee says it was unable to learn whether the loan was
paid back.)
On March 29,
six days after the $15,000 wire transfer, committee lawyers again
talked to Bart Williams. This time, according to committee sources,
Williams was far less cooperative, telling them that Roger Clinton
would not voluntarily answer the committee's questions (although
he would give investigators the documents they requested.) Later,
when committee lawyers discussed calling Roger Clinton to testify
before the committee, Williams told them Clinton would take the
Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions. The committee report
concludes: "It is unknown whether Roger Clinton's acceptance
of $15,000 for his legal fees from his brother made him any less
likely to provide testimony adverse to his brother to the committee
or to law enforcement agencies."
In an interview
with National Review Online, Williams offered a strikingly different
version of events. First, Williams says the traveler's checks were
payments to Roger Clinton for musical performances overseas. "He
got paid for events where he performed, he put them in his bank,
and he paid taxes on the totals," Williams says. "He did
not focus on where [the checks] were purchased." Williams says
Clinton performed in Taiwan, South Korea, and Venezuela, all sources
of the blank traveler's checks he deposited in his account.
As for the
contention that he told the Government Reform Committee that Roger
Clinton might testify voluntarily, Williams says, "That is
not accurate. I never told them he would be available for an interview.
I told them that I would be willing to discuss whether or not to
make him available for an interview if they would be willing to
discuss what they were going to ask him." Later, Roger Clinton
became more determined not to talk, but Williams says that had nothing
to do with the $15,000 Clinton received from his brother's bank
account. Instead, Williams says, "It became clear to me that
[the committee's] scope was really, in my opinion, to go into anything
that could be embarrassing to the Clinton family generally, and
I thought it didn't make a whole lot of sense to participate in
that."
But why didn't
Roger Clinton at least offer some explanation of the traveler's
checks? For example, if he had a contract to perform at a certain
event, why not produce that contract to prove the money was payment
for a specific service? "Sometimes there were written agreements,
sometimes there weren't," says Williams. According to Williams,
the main reason Clinton did not give the committee information on
the traveler's checks was his fear that Burton and his staff would
use the information for partisan political purposes. "The assumption
in that question is that he's going to be treated fairly,"
Williams says. "That's a heck of an assumption, and it's not
one he is prepared to make. It's not his obligation to explain all
of his personal financial dealings."
A
Superstar Overseas
While Williams's account answers some questions about Roger Clinton's
behavior, it also raises others. Why, for example, was Clinton,
who had always struggled to make a living in the music business,
paid such large sums of money to perform in foreign countries? In
late September 1999 — as he was still receiving occasional
traveler's-check payments — Clinton himself addressed the question
in an interview with FBI agents who were looking into his finances.
According to the FBI's written account of the interview, Clinton
conceded that he sometimes accepted extravagantly generous offers
to perform overseas:
He has received
invitations from presidents and other foreign government leaders
from between 10-12 different countries. Clinton advised he knows
he receives these invitations strictly because he is the First
Brother of the President of the United States. Clinton advised
that the president is aware of the invitations in general, but
may not know each time he takes a trip. Clinton stated that when
he receives an invitation to visit a country he is often offered
money by the country to make the trip. He stated that he would
not accept the invitation unless he could earn the money. He insists
on performing with his band while visiting the country. He is
a musician and wants to be recognized for his music. Clinton stated
he receives a minimum of $25,000 per performance when he travels...
In addition,
Clinton told the FBI that he had traveled to South Korea six times
as the personal guest of President Kim Dae Jung and was paid as
much as $200,000 for performing on a trip. According to the agent's
notes, Clinton said that "the country extending the invitation
usually pays for him and his six-piece band to fly to the country
and perform. The host country usually pays all their expenses and
provides a presidential security detail while they are there."
Clinton told
agents that he has "received payment by check in United States
dollars, cash in United States dollars and also in the currency
of the host country." But he told the FBI that he "did
not want to provide specific details on what exactly he is paid
for his performances or the method of payment because that is 'personal.'"
The FBI interview summary made no mention of traveler's checks.
While both
the FBI summary and the Government Reform Committee's report (which
is available on the committee's website)
shed some light on Clinton's finances, they still do not answer
several questions. What were the sources of the blank traveler's
checks? Can Clinton's generous payments from foreign leaders —
he could not command such prices for performing at home — be
viewed as an attempt by foreign governments to purchase the president's
favor through his brother? And was there any ulterior motive behind
Bill Clinton's $15,000 money transfer to his brother at the moment
Roger Clinton was facing scrutiny from the Burton committee and
Justice Department investigators?
It is possible
that some or all those issues are part of the criminal investigation
of the Clinton pardon affair that is still underway in the Southern
District of New York. It's not clear where that investigation stands;
Bart Williams says he has not heard from prosecutors there in more
than six months. But the Government Reform Committee report suggests
that the scope of the investigation stretches well beyond what is
generally known as the presidential pardon scandal.
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