by Bill Levinson

Now that the National Jewish Democratic Council has excoriated the Scooter Libby sentence commutation, we would like to ask where it stands on William Jefferson Clinton’s outright pardon of Democratic Party donor Marc Rich. Ira Forman, the same individual who leant his organization’s purportedly Jewish identity to a whitewash of MoveOn.org’s anti-Semitic hatefest, posted the following in NJDC’s blog today.

Romney thinks it OK to commute a sentence of a White House insider— a friend of the Vice President— but he felt it was important that as Governor to twice deny a pardon to Anthony Circosta, who at age 13 was convicted of assault for shooting another boy in the arm with a BB gun — a shot that didn’t break the skin.

We have previously shown that Ira Forman himself has no problem whatsoever pardoning, excusing, and whitewashing the vilest imaginable anti-Semitic (and racist and anti-Catholic) hate speech when it comes from his “Democratic” allies at MoveOn.org, and now we would like to ask where he stands on Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich.

The story of Clinton’s Marc Rich pardon
Co-conspirators serve time while multimillionaire enjoys clemency

Forty-one years later, Marc Rich was fleeing again, but this time the feared authority was not Adolph Hitler, but the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Morris (Sandy) Weinberg. Rich’s crimes included tax evasion, fraud and “trading with the enemy” — Iran, during the hostage crisis.

Rich, by now a multimillionaire, was in Switzerland on the day his indictment came down and decided to stay. Once again, Rich started his life afresh, leaving his old wife Denise for a young blond model, changing the name of one of his Swiss firms and starting a new business.

On Jan. 20, President Clinton gave Rich a chance for a third “do-over.” Clinton wiped all the criminal charges off of Rich’s record with a presidential pardon on his last day in power. The Rich pardon has received special attention because Denise Rich raised and donated more than $1 million to the Democratic Party in recent years and also provided the Clintons directly with a $10,000 contribution to their legal defense fund and $7,300 worth of furniture.

Ira Forman, what is your position on Bill Clinton’s outright pardon (not sentence commutation) of Marc Rich? Don’t worry, we won’t hold our breaths waiting for your answer.