Reports: Roger Clinton Took Gambino Money

W A S H I N G T O N, June 28, 2001 -- The family of a convicted crime boss paidRoger Clinton $50,000 and the check is being examined by a Housepanel investigating how the Clinton administration doled outpardons, according to a House official.

Rosario Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker and reputed mafiaboss, did not receive a pardon from former President Clinton. Butthe White House did request background information on Gambino fromthe Justice Department near the end of Clinton's second term, asource familiar with the House investigation said late Wednesday. The New York Times reported on its Web site that the backgroundrequest was connected to a possible White House pardon. The JusticeDepartment sent the Clinton administration a record of Gambino'scriminal record, the newspaper said. A source close to the investigation also told the Times thatRoger Clinton wrote a letter to Clinton's parole commission in 1999on behalf of Gambino. Roger Clinton is former President Clinton'shalf brother. "We have posed questions to Mr. [Roger] Clinton and we did askabout a $50,000 payment from a company owned by the family ofRosario Gambino, who is serving at lengthy prison sentence forheroin traffic," Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the House Committeeon Government Reform, told The Associated Press. Gambino is serving a 45-year sentence, Corallo said.

‘Tommy Gambino Is a Friend of Roger Clinton’s’

Roger Clinton's lawyer, Bart H. Williams, acknowledged Wednesdaythat his client had received money from the Gambino family,according to the Times. "Tommy Gambino is a friend of Roger Clinton's and has been formany years," Williams told the newspaper. "I'm not going tocomment on what the payment is for or about. I am going to say itwas not related to Roger Clinton's assisting Tommy Gambino's fatherin his parole efforts or any other effort." Corallo said proof of the check showed up when congressionalinvestigators subpoenaed information on payments Roger Clintonreceived from people he requested pardons for. Roger Clinton has repeatedly denied that he received anypayments for pardon requests. The controversy over whether the Clinton administration offeredpardons for money began in the weeks after the president's finalday in office, when he granted 177 clemencies and commutations. Three cases drew instant criticism: the pardon of then-fugitivecommodities broker Marc Rich, commutations for four Hasidic Jewsconvicted of fraud and an allegation that Roger Clinton received upto $200,000 for promising to help a Texas man win a pardon.