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CNN Saturday Morning News

Denise Rich Publicly Discusses Pardons

Aired April 28, 2001 - 07:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Denise Rich is talking publicly about the controversy over 11th-hour pardons granted by former President Clinton. Rich, a generous Democratic contributor, says she did nothing wrong in helping her ex-husband get a pardon.

Here's CNN national correspondent Eileen O'Connor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

LARRY KING, HOST: It was never in your mind, I am giving this to get that.

DENISE RICH: No.

KING: Never.

RICH: No. No, no, no, no, no.

KING: But you...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an interview with CNN's Larry King, Denise Rich vehemently denies over a million dollars in Democratic Party or Clinton library contributions had anything to do with the former president's pardon of her ex-husband, fugitive financier Marc Rich.

Rich also scoffs at rumors of an affair between her and the former president. It's a denial Maureen Orth, a writer for "Vanity Fair" magazine, who wrote a profile of Rich, believes.

MAUREEN ORTH, WRITER, "VANITY FAIR" MAGAZINE: I don't believe she would have jeopardized her social standing by doing something like that.

O'CONNOR: Rich says the trouble this has caused her pales in comparison to the loss of her daughter Gabrielle to leukemia. It was Rich's desire to establish a foundation dedicated to cancer research that may have led to her courting of the president and first lady.

ORTH: She was so concerned to maintain good relations with both the president and Hillary Clinton, she wanted them to be the chairs of her ball for the foundation that supported her dead daughter's -- you know, leukemia cure.

O'CONNOR: A successful songwriter who received an estimated $200 million in a bitterly fought divorce from Marc Rich, she told Larry King she wrote the letter to the president asking for a pardon for her former husband because her daughter, Gabrielle, would have wanted her to.

ORTH: Well, she says that she forgave her ex-husband when her daughter died of leukemia in 1996, and she felt that they should move forward. And because her own daughters asked her and pleaded with her.

O'CONNOR: Rich has been interviewed by the U.S. attorney investigating whether money was given in exchange for any presidential pardons. For now, at least, Rich is giving viewers the impression she has nothing to hide.

Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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