Denise Rich, Michael Jackson and the Clintons last November in New York
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During the past two decades, Rich has paid in his own inimitable way, doling out about $200 million to various charities. He also made overtures toward settling with the government for as much as $100 million. But "it was never about the money," says Morris ("Sandy") Weinberg, the original lead prosecutor alongside Giuliani, who now practices law in Tampa, Fla. "If the biggest tax evaders in the U.S. never did jail time, we could never prosecute another tax case."
It's no wonder, then, that in the fall of 1999, when Quinn contacted the U.S. attorney's office in New York about making a deal, he got, as he says, "the back of the hand" from U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White. In Quinn's view, the original criminal prosecution of Rich was flawed, making an example of him for an offense that other oil companies had simply been fined for. But the Justice Department wasn't buying it. Officials insisted that no negotiations could begin until Rich went home to face the music.
By Thanksgiving 2000, Quinn had started a new game. During a meeting at the Justice Department on Nov. 21, he notified Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder of his plan to file a pardon petition with the White House. He asked Holder if he wanted a copy. Holder, who assumed that the White House would forward the petition to the Justice Department's pardon attorney for review, as was customary, said he personally did not. On Dec. 11, Quinn delivered the massive document, about the size of a phone book, which TIME has seen, to the office of White House Counsel Beth Nolan.
This time, for reasons that haven't been explained, the White House decided not to send the petition to Justice. While legal and not unprecedented, the decision added to the perception that Quinn and the White House weren't playing fair. On Jan. 5, worried about the approaching deadline, Quinn went straight to the top, sending a letter to Clinton that read, "I believe in this cause with all my heart." Five days later, he forwarded a copy of that missive to Holder, requesting his support. Curiously, because of an address mix-up, Holder didn't receive it until Jan. 17. By then, as Justice raced to draft a letter expressing its disapproval of the pardon, it was too late. "The whole thing is, you might say, Clintonesque," says a Justice Department lawyer.
On the day before the Bush inauguration, Quinn pleaded Rich's case in a face-to-face meeting with Clinton. During the entire half-hour chat, Quinn insists, only the legal issues were discussed. Later that day, around 6:30, Quinn informed Holder that the White House was actively considering the pardon and asked if he had any final objections. Holder said he didn't know enough about the case to make a judgment, but added that the federal attorneys in New York, who hadn't been consulted yet, were "going to howl" if it was approved. When approval came, the only condition was that Rich waive his right to use the statute of limitations to contest any civil penalties. "Quinn made a strong case," Clinton told reporters last week, "and I was convinced he was right on the merits."
The pardon case was strengthened by an extraordinary lobbying effort. For starters, there was Denise Rich, the Grammy-nominated songwriter and Democratic diva who throws some of the most happening fund-raisers in New York City and Aspen, Colo., frequented by the likes of Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson. Despite their less-than- amicable divorce a few years ago — Marc left her for a younger blond — Denise recently wrote a supporting letter at the request of Marc's New York attorney, Robert Fink. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Denise has been one of the Clintons' most loyal supporters, giving $70,000 in soft money to Hillary's Senate race. It was Denise who held a morale-boosting, $4 million Democratic fund-raiser starring Bill Clinton at her Fifth Avenue apartment in September 1998, one of his first appearances after the release of the Starr report. But now the spotlight on Denise may have become too hot; late last week she backed out of a welcome-home party for former HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, a potential New York gubernatorial candidate in 2002.
Less visible were Marc Rich's allies in Israel, where his foundation has donated millions of dollars to museums, hospitals and the resettlement of Soviet and Ethiopian Jews. Sources tell TIME that Barak, taking a break from the stalled Middle East peace negotiations, spoke with Clinton several times to vouch for Rich's "humanitarian role in Israel." Other VIPs, including Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert and former Mossad head Shabtai Shavit, also wrote letters on Rich's behalf. Shavit said Rich "used his extensive network of contacts" to help Israeli intelligence. In all, Clinton received more than 20 personal letters, some written directly to the President, in favor of the pardon and an additional 50 praising Rich's philanthropy.