http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-clinton-legal-defense0806aug06.story

Sen. Clinton Aides Open Defense Fund

By SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated Press Writer

August 6, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Three aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have established legal defense funds that could defray costs connected with a federal inquiry into President Clinton's pardons.

Deputy state director Ramon Martinez III, legislative correspondent April Springfield and legislative assistant Sean Sweeney all filed papers with the secretary of the Senate in recent weeks.

"It's a pending investigation, so I really can't comment," Martinez said Monday.

Martinez works in Mrs. Clinton's New York City office. He was political director for her Senate bid. Springfield and Sweeney, who work in Washington, also worked on the Democrat's Senate campaign in New York.

U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White's office for the Southern District of New York is investigating last-minute pardons President Clinton granted to fugitive financier Marc Rich and also whether Clinton commuted the sentences of four Hasidic Jews in exchange for votes for his wife.

The Rockland County community of New Square voted overwhelmingly for Bill Clinton in last fall's election.

Mrs. Clinton has said that she sat in on a post-election meeting between leaders of the community and her husband during which the topic of the commutations came up. But she said she played no role in her husband's decision to commute the sentences of the four men, convicted of swindling the federal government out of $40 million.

Karen Dunn, spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, would not say on Monday whether the funds were designed to handle legal costs from the pardon investigation.

"When any Senate staffer receives pro-bono legal services, for whatever reason, they have to file with the Senate," Dunn said.

Senate ethics rules prohibit accepting most gifts worth $50 or more.

The Clintons themselves set up a legal defense fund to help with their bills resulting from various investigations. So have several of their aides.

The new legal defense filings listed no contributions and no expenditures.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001