The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

changed her feelings about Marc Rich. “Gabrielle would have wanted that I forgive him. She would have wanted that I support him.”
A Delicate Financial Agreement
     
    However, it is also true that Denise accepted Avner Azulay’s proposal to compensate her for the40 million she thought Marc Rich owed her. According to an agreement, signed in January 2001 by all parties, shortly before President Clinton finally granted the pardon, Rich and Green would each contribute500,000 per year to the G&P Foundation. (In order to prevent any possible misunderstandings, let me emphasize that Denise Rich herself was not the beneficiary, but rather the G&P Foundation was.) The foundation would use these funds to cooperate with the Gabrielle Rich Leukemia Research Centre at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which Marc Rich had established separately in Israel to support leukemia research. It was up to a committee of scientists designated by both sides to decide how the money could best be invested.
    Denise acknowledged the existence of this agreement. “Gabrielle asked that we continue her foundation. It was my daughter’s last wish. She had started it, and she asked for it. She was working on her computer up until she died. I had asked [Marc Rich and Pincus Green] if they would help me, and they had said they would. It had nothing to dowith the pardon.” In the wake of the public outrage that was sparked by Rich’s pardon, Denise decided to waive her right to her ex-husband’s money. “I didn’t want anything to hurt the foundation, so I decided to accept no money from them. I didn’t want the question of money to tarnish the foundation.” “She wanted it to be pure,” Danielle added.
    It was certainly the right decision, as the outrage that followed in the wake of the pardon was tremendous. To this day, Denise Rich still finds herself caught up in the critics’ crossfire. The whole affair took on the stench of corruption as a result of Denise’s contributions to the Clintons’ and various other Democratic campaigns. Denise had to deny even more insidious charges on Barbara Walters’s ABC newsmagazine
20/20.
“I never had a sexual relationship or anything else that’s improper,” Denise explained in her interview with Walters.
    There was hardly a single journalist or politician who was prepared to believe that Rich’s pardon was completely aboveboard. Eight years later, Sandy Weinberg’s blood pressure still rises whenever he looks back on the affair. “They were circumventing the entire process. Nobody asked me about it. Nobody asked the Southern District about it. Not one person that had any knowledge about the case weighed in with the president. It’s a complete outrage.” I asked Weinberg if he believed corruption had played a role in the pardon. “I don’t want to speculate,” Weinberg told me. “I don’t know whether there was money involved, whether some corrupt purpose was involved. What I do know is that President Clinton was sold a bill of goods by Jack Quinn.”
    Quinn was taken aback by the outrage he faced. “I considered myself astute politically, and I certainly considered President Clinton to be astute politically, but I think we were both surprised at the extent of the uproar that ensued.” I felt that the entire affair had made a much deeper impact on Quinn than he was prepared to admit in public, and I questioned him on this point during our interview. “It was among the most painful parts of my entire life,” Quinn confided to me. When I asked him what had bothered him most about the reaction to Rich’s pardon, Quinn answered, “Having my integrity questioned.”
The Role of Eric Holder
     
    It was not only Bill Clinton, Jack Quinn, and Denise Rich who had to face public outrage over Rich’s pardon. Eric Holder soon found himself in the firing line as well. Holder served at the Department of Justice as deputy attorney general at the time of Rich’s pardon. He was considered a brilliant, independent, and thoughtful attorney who enjoyed a great amount of respect from both Democrats and Republicans. Quinn had met Holder while serving in the Clinton administration, and the two had been in contact ever since. Holder was one of the first people Quinn had approached regarding the Rich affair in November 1999—long before Michael Steinhardt first came up with the idea of applying for a presidential pardon. Quinn was still trying to convince the Southern District of New York to