Wealthy Democratic Party donor Denise Rich, in her first interviews since former President Bill Clinton's pardon of her ex-husband, Marc Rich, insisted the pardon was not bought and said she supported it under pressure from their daughters.
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Denise Rich, a successful songwriter who donated more than 1 million to Democratic causes and 450,000 to Mr Clinton's presidential library, said in interviews with
Vanity Fair
magazine and
ABC News'
20/20 program, that there was no quid pro quo in the pardon Mr Clinton granted the exiled billionaire commodities trader on his last day in office Jan 20.
"That's not at all what it was about," Ms Rich said in the 20/20 interview to be broadcast today."I wanted to support the president, and I wanted to support my country." Ms Rich also denied tabloid reports suggesting that she and Mr Clinton had an affair.
"I never had a sexual relationship or anything else that's improper," she said. "Any kind of relationship that would be improper with President Clinton."In both interviews, Ms Rich, 57, admitted that her contributions to the Democratic Party, including former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for a US Senate seat from New York, had bought her access to the White House.
The office of the US attorney for Manhattan, Mary Jo White, is examining whether Marc Rich, 66, bought his pardon with political donations and gifts that Denise Rich gave Mr Clinton, the Democratic Party and Senator Hillary Clinton.
Vanity Fair traces Rich's dealings in North Korea, Russia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Jamaica, Venezuela and South Africa, when anti-apartheid sanctions were in force.
"The smoking gun is greed," Ken Hill, the US Marshall who hunted Mr Rich around the world for 14 years, told Vanity Fair.This is what Marc thrived on - the greed of those who had commodities and were in positionsof influence and power.