Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Breitbart News editor-at-large Peter Schweizer, also president of the Government Accountability Institute and best-selling author of the book “Clinton Cash” discussed his New York Post oped about the presidential pardon of Marc Rich by Bill Clinton at the en of his second term and how he is still reaping rewards from that pardon.
Transcript as follows:
HANNITY: So another one of Bill Clinton’s scandals from his troubled presidency is coming back to haunt Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House. In an article for The New York Post, author Peter Schweizer exposes how the Clintons have benefitted from Bill’s infamous presidential pardon of international fugitive Marc Rich. This was back in 2001.
Now, Schweizer writes, quote, “But while the pardon was a political mistake it certainly was not a financial one. In the years following the scandal the flow of funds from those connected to Marc Rich or the pardoned scandal have continued to help the Clinton. And Rich died in 2013, but his business partners, lawyers, advisers and friends have showered millions of dollars on the Clintons in the decade and a half following the scandal.”
Here with reaction, author of “Clinton Cash,” the president of the Government Accountability Institute, Breitbart senior editor at large Peter Schweizer is back. And this never ends. You talked a lot about the money coming in from countries that have atrocious human rights records and women’s rights records. And you have the pardon of Marc Rich, they’ve benefited big time financially. Explain this.
PETER SCHWEIZER, AUTHOR, “CLINTON CASH”: Yes, that’s right, Sean. If you remember the Marc Rich scandal, Marc Rich was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. Bill Clinton on his last day in office pardons him. A lot of people were shocked and surprised, including his political allies. And what an investigation found up after the fact was that in a run-up to that pardon. Denise Rich, Marc Rich’s ex-wife, had written large checks to the Clinton Foundation and to the Democratic Party.
What we found in researching the donations since that pardon is that the flow of cash of people connected to Marc Rich has continued. As you pointed out, Bill Clinton has said this was a political mistake. It certainly has not been a financial one. They have reaped a lot of financial rewards because of what they did for Marc Rich.
HANNITY: This is a guy, by the way, who traded illegally with America’s enemies, including the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. And he brought about $200 million worth of oil while revolutionaries allied with Khomeini had American hostages. This is not a good guy. This is a guy that was apparently a lot of his wealth selling oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa. We reached out to the Clinton Foundation. Interestingly, Peter, they didn’t respond to us. Why?
(LAUGHTER)
SCHWEIZER: Yes, big surprise. You’re exactly right. Marc Rich was a bad, bad dude. And by the way, all of the things that you mentioned bout him trading with the Ayatollah Khomeini, with North Korea, with the apartheid regime in South Africa, even after the 2001 pardon, it came out after that fact that he was continuing in his bad ways. He was implicated in the oil for food scandal involving the Iraqi government and Saddam Hussein. So it’s not like this is a guy who was repentant for what he had done.
And yet the Clintons have taken a $1 billion pledge from Marc Rich’s long time business partner. They’ve taken money from his lawyers. They’ve taken money from all sorts of people directly connected to Marc Rich. And it just indicates they’re pretty much willing to take money from anybody.
HANNITY: How much money are we talking about?
SCHWEIZER: It’s hard to say because they reveal the contributions in ranges. But it is certainly more than $10 million. There is a $1 billion with a “b” pledge that Gilbert Chagoury, Marc Rich’s long time business partner, has made. We don’t know how much of that has been honored, but it’s a large sum of money.
And by the way, Sean, as I point out in the piece, there are still more than 1,000 contributors to the Clinton Foundation that have never been disclosed. Those are people basically from the natural resources industry which is commodities and mining. That was Marc Rich’s industry, so the possibility that there is more is certainly out there.
HANNITY: Is it fair to say that countries with atrocious human rights records like Saudi Arabia and all these others that donated to the Clinton Foundation bought Hillary’s silence, and that in this case there was sort of like a wink and a nod, a quid pro quo, you get your pardon, we expect your help later?
SCHWEIZER: Yes, it’s a good question. I get asked this a lot. How does the Clinton business model work? And I basically think there are two ways. One is basically payment for services rendered, right? A pardon takes place, we’re going to take care of you. I think the other arrangement the Clinton’s have is kind of a retainer arrangement, right? We’ll continue to provide you with funds. We may not need you to do something right now. We may need you to do something later on. So both of those are definitely in play and involve some really, really bad people.
HANNITY: All right, thanks so much, appreciate it, Peter.
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