Roger Clinton Under Investigation ... Again
June 18, 2001 -- Former President Clinton's half-brother Roger Clinton is again under investigation for alleged influence peddling with federal prosecutors probing accusations he took thousands of dollars to arrange for two diplomatic passports and a presidential pardon.
In August 1998, in a room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Dallas, Clinton and two business partners were allegedly paid $30,000 in cash as a down payment for two diplomatic passports for Texas businessman Richard Cayce.
ABCNEWS has obtained a copy of a written statement Cayce made to the U.S. Attorney's office in New York.
"They told me they could lobby anyone that they wanted too [sic] and that Bill Clinton would do whatever Rodger [sic] wanted him to do," Cayce told prosecutors.
The special diplomatic passports are usually granted only to government officials, but Cayce, who did a lot of business overseas, reportedly wanted them for his business.
According to Cayce, Clinton and his partners — George Locke and Dickey Morton — also said they could obtain a presidential pardon for Garland Lincecum — a friend of Cayce who had been recently convicted of fraud.
Lincecum's mother and brother tell ABCNEWS they paid $235,000 to the men and had "numerous conversations" with them about a pardon.
"Morton told Garland directly, as did Locke, that he was paying for a pardon," said Edward Hayes, Lincecum's attorney. "He wasn't paying for lobbying to get a pardon — he was paying for the guarantee of a pardon."
But the pardon and the special passports never materialized.
"There was either influence peddling that never came through or we were defrauded," said Jay Ethington, Cayce's lawyer.
The attorney representing Locke and Morton denied his clients discussed passports or pardons with Cayce and called Cayce's statement to prosecutors "totally false."
Former President Clinton's spokesperson would not comment directly on the matter, saying only, "Presidential pardons were granted solely on the merits."
Roger Clinton has said he recommended a number of pardons to his brother. He was under investigation by prosecutors for allegedly seeking $15,000 in return for helping to secure a pardon for Arkansas man, Phillip David Young.
Mary Jo White, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, opened an inquiry into Clinton's clemency grants in February after it was revealed the ex-wife of Marc Rich, a fugitive billionaire whom Clinton freed from prosecution on his last day as president, gave some $1.5 million to various Democratic Party causes.