Roger Clinton's Pardon List Yields Yet Another Drug Dealer
NewsMax.com
Thursday, June 28, 2001 10:47 a.m. EDT
The name of yet another drug dealer has emerged on the list of "dear" Clinton family friends for whom former first brother Roger Clinton allegedly tried to obtain a presidential pardon, bringing the number of drug convicts who say Clinton went to bat for them to at least six.
Reputed Gambino crime family member Rosario Gambino has fingered Roger Clinton in another cash-for-clemency scam, telling House investigators that he paid the former first brother $50,000 for a pardon that never came.
In 1984 Mr. Gambino, who denies any connection to the Gambino crime family, was convicted of selling two pounds of heroin to undercover FBI agents.
In still worse news for the Clinton family, former White House officials acknowledged late Tuesday they took action on Roger's request for a Gambino pardon, admitting that a letter written by the former first brother prompted a Justice Department review of the case.
"A person close to Tommy Gambino, Rosario Gambino's son, said that Roger Clinton had led the family to believe he could help obtain a presidential pardon," the New York Times reported Thursday, in yet another front-page bombshell account implicating Roger Clinton in possible criminal activity.
"Whatever (Roger) said to him made Tommy think it was a lock," the unnamed source told the paper.
Just a week ago, Roger appeared on "Larry King Live" in an effort to defuse the mounting allegations of presidential pardon peddling. Clinton admitted he personally sought six pardons from his brother, but claimed none of them were granted.
Despite repeated requests, neither Bill Clinton nor his brother will reveal the identities of the names on Roger's list.
But the ex-president's brother told King that he sought pardons only for close family friends:
"One of my friends that - and I'm really not going to be mentioning too many names, specific names tonight, but one of my good friends that I had requested - I requested four or five people for pardons that were dear friends of mine and in our families ..."
With the emergence of Gambino's name on Roger's list, it appears that many, if not all, of his known pardon requests were for fellow drug dealers.
Former Clinton family crony, Little Rock investment banker and convicted cocaine distributer Dan Lasater, acknowledged to the Washington Post in February that his was among the names on Roger's list.
During an interview on Lasater's front doorstep, the former cocaine convict told the Post's Sue Schmidt that Roger Clinton "told him late last year he would put in a good word for him with the president."
Another pardon hopeful, former Arkansas state senator George Locke, told the Wall Street Journal that he expected the former first brother would be able to secure a pardon for him "when Roger got his."
Locke did prison time on a 1985 cocaine conviction that was part of the same state and federal drug prosecution that sent Roger Clinton to jail. The two were reportedly cellmates.
Up until late 1999, Locke was a partner with Clinton in a company known as CLM LLC, a now defunct operation that took hundreds of thousands of dollars in what accusers say were payments for pardons and diplomatic passports.
Roger Clinton has repeatedly denied taking money for clemency and claimed his brother failed to grant any of his pardon requests, including Lasater's and Locke's. But two additional drug convicts with connections to the former first brother actually did get clemency.
Carlos Vignale, a Los Angeles drug dealer convicted in 1994 of smuggling 800 pounds of cocaine to Chicago, had his jail sentence commuted by President Clinton on Jan. 20. Vignale's father, Horatio, told Time magazine in February that he paid Roger Clinton $30,000 in exchange for help in arranging his son's freedom.
Mitchell Couey Wood, who was pardoned by Bill Clinton the same day he signed Vignale's commutation, has been described in news reports as a "boyhood friend" of Roger's. In 1985, Wood was convicted and jailed as part of the same Arkansas drug investigation that ensnared Lasater, Locke and Roger Clinton.
Wood said he never asked for Roger's help with his pardon, but told the Wall Street Journal in February that he couldn't explain how he obtained the White House favor, saying, "President Clinton would not have any idea who I was."
"Why Mr. Wood was pardoned is a mystery," said the Journal.
Unlike Vignale and Gambino - Lasater, Locke and Wood said Clinton did not take any money in exchange for his help with pardons.
Yet another individual from Roger Clinton's drug-dealing past appears to have been on his pardon list as well.
Hot Springs attorney Sam Anderson, a longtime personal friend of Bill Clinton, was convicted in the same cocaine conspiracy trial that sent Lasater, Locke, Wood and Roger Clinton to jail. Roger testified against Anderson in exchange for leniency.
In February Anderson told the Washington Post that Roger Clinton approached him several times in recent years and said, "We ought to get us a pardon."
"Maybe my name was on [Roger's] list, but it was not something I sought or went for," Anderson told the Post. He said he did not pay Clinton for any pardon favors.
The case against Lasater, Locke, Wood, Anderson and Roger Clinton was prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson, who was a House manager at Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial and now serves as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration under President George Bush.
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