Report: Clinton Family All Tangled Up in Pardons

WASHINGTON – Roger Clinton, the former president's half-brother, lobbied his brother for pardons or favors for at least a dozen people and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing so, a House investigatory committee reported this week.

The House Government Reform Committee will vote Thursday on whether to accept the report titled "Justice Undone: Clemency Decisions in the Clinton White House."

Click here to read the report.

Committee Chairman Dan Burton, a frequent and harsh critic of former President Bill Clinton, released the report this week in which he concluded that Roger Clinton was far more deeply involved in pardons and favors than he has previously acknowledged, and that his brother encouraged his activities.

"President Clinton encouraged Roger Clinton to capitalize on his relationship to the president," the report states.

Roger Clinton then did so by taking part of a $225,000 payment from the Lincecum family seeking a pardon for Garland Lincecum and $50,000 to get a commutation in the sentence of mob boss Rosario Gambino after Clinton's attempt to intervene with the parole board failed.

The report said Clinton actually tried to get commutations and pardons for 13 individuals, more than twice as many as he admitted to.

Burton's committee also criticized the Bush administration for failing to produce documents relating to the pardon investigation.

"For months, the Bush White House prevented the National Archives from producing even non-deliberative, clemency-related records from the Clinton administration," the report reads. "The committee did not learn that President Clinton had been considering a clemency petition from notorious mobster Rosario Gambino until Archives personnel 'inadvertently' produced documents that President Bush's Counsel had sought to withhold."

The committee also reported that Hillary Clinton's brother Tony received thousands of dollars trying unsuccessfully to secure pardons for his clients — an activity that the report says was improper if not illegal — while other brother Hugh, who helped get a commutation for convicted cocaine dealer Carlos Vignali, has returned less than a fourth of the $204,000 he was paid for doing so.