The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

three of the most important arguments as follows:
     
I understood that the other oil companies that had structured transactions like those on which Mr. Rich and Mr. Green were indicted were instead sued civilly by the government; . . .
    Two highly regarded tax experts, Bernard Wolfman of Harvard Law School and Martin Ginsburg of Georgetown University Law Center, reviewed the transactions in question and concluded that the companies “were correct in their U.S. income tax treatment of all the items in question, and [that] there was no unreported federal income or additional tax liability attributable to any of the [challenged] transactions”; . . .
    The Justice Department in 1989 rejected the use of racketeering statutes in tax cases like this one.
     
    These arguments may have been a good way of legally
justifying
the pardon, but I am not sure they are sufficient to explain Clinton’s decisionto actually
grant
the pardon. The research and interviews I carried out in the course of writing this book have led me to believe that Denise Rich’s role in the pardon has been grossly overestimated. Of course Denise was helpful—after all, she was a friend and admirer of the Clintons. She was able to get the president’s attention—something that is always in short supply—and thus open a few doors for her ex-husband. Denise was not the deciding factor, though, and her hefty donations to the Clintons and the Democratic Party were not the reason Rich was pardoned.
    Neither was Clinton’s decision to pardon Rich primarily a result of
legal
arguments. Instead, the president was swayed by the
emotional
and
political
aspects of Rich’s petition. On an emotional level, Clinton allowed himself to be convinced by Jack Quinn’s argument that Rich’s case had been “grossly overprosecuted” by aggressive federal prosecutors. The president had himself experienced the lengths to which fanatical investigators were prepared to go. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr was originally appointed to investigate the Clintons’ role in the Whitewater scandal, but Starr later widened his investigation and delved into the president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. The president soon found himself facing impeachment proceedings as a result of the investigations. Although he remained in office, his reputation had suffered greatly in the aftermath.
    The president felt that he had been the victim of aggressive, overzealous persecution—and Rich’s team had consciously used the president’s feeling of victimization in their petition. “The pardon petition was literally written to the president,” Bob Fink told me before popping open a can of Diet Dr Pepper. “It was written to him with the hope that he would personally read it and with the hope that he would recognize his own personal experiences.”
    When it came to the political aspect of the petition, the support of Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres played a crucial role in the president’s decision—a belief that is shared by Jack Quinn and Avner Azulay, the two masterminds behind Rich’s pardon application. “Without the supportof Barak and Peres, Clinton would not have granted the pardon—no doubt about it,” Azulay told me. “The entreaties of Prime Minister Barak weighed very heavily on the president’s mind,” Quinn explained. Clinton seemed to confirm their opinions in his autobiography: “Ehud Barak asked me three times to pardon Rich because of Rich’s services to Israel and his help with the Palestinians, and several other Israeli figures in both major parties urged his release.” 24
    Marc Rich was indeed of great importance to the Israelis. Rich’s oil deliveries and assistance to the Mossad had contributed greatly to Israel’s national security. It is difficult to imagine a U.S. president who would have not have had difficulties ignoring the pleas of so many Israeli politicians and dignitaries. Israel is by far the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East. There is a further factor that could have influenced Clinton’s decision as well. On the day he issued the pardon, the Israelis and the Palestinians sat down for important peace talks in the Egyptian town of Taba. Clinton had lent his backing to the negotiations a month prior to this Taba Summit. Israel’s foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, who had also lobbied for Rich’s pardon, took part in the negotiations. The talks were Clinton’s last opportunity as an American president to help end