Hugh Rodham Questioned Over Clemency
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators want to know if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother used her name to get presidential clemency for a convicted cocaine dealer.
In a July 30 letter obtained by The Associated Press, the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee probing former President Clinton's last-minute pardons asked Hugh Rodham if he told anyone at the White House that his sister supported a commutation for Carlos Vignali.
The letter from Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., referred to a handwritten note on White House stationery that said, ``Hugh says this is very important to him and the first lady as well as others.'' The two-sentence note was unsigned.
It was located in a file maintained by former top White House aide Bruce Lindsey, Burton said.
Both Rodham and Hillary Clinton have denied that the New York Democrat knew about her brother's pardon work.
Burton's letter to Rodham also asked whether Hillary Clinton was ``aware of your work on the Vignali matter?''
Rodham, through his lawyer Nancy Luque, told Burton's committee in February that he had no contact with President Clinton or the first lady about his work on the Vignali commutation.
Hugh Rodham came under fire when it was learned that he had received $400,000 for his work on the prison commutation of Vignali and the pardon request of Almon Glenn Braswell. The commutation of Vignali's sentence and Braswell's pardon were among 177 pardons and clemencies Clinton granted just before leaving the White House.
Rodham bowed to his sister's demand that he return the money.
Hillary Clinton reiterated Wednesday she did not know about her brother's work.
``I didn't know anything and that's what I've said, that's what my brother's lawyer has said, that happens to be the truth,'' she told The Associated Press.
Luque, Rodham's lawyer, did not return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday.
Burton asked more than 30 questions about the Vignali pardon in his four-page letter to Rodham, including seven on Hillary Clinton's role. He also asked for more information about Rodham's three contacts with Lindsey on the Vignali case.
Vignali, son of a major Democratic campaign contributor in Los Angeles, was serving a 15-year sentence for a drug conviction.
Originally published August 08, 2001.
