Saturday February 24 7:59 AM ET
Report: Pardons Probed for Ties to N.Y. Senate Bid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether former president Bill Clinton commuted the fraud sentences of four Hasidic Jewish leaders from New York as payback for their community's support for his wife's Senate race, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

The four leaders of the tightly knit New Square community were convicted in 1999 of stealing more than $30 million in government funds. They received prison sentences ranging from 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 years. Clinton commuted their sentences to 24 to 30 months, the Post said.

New Square residents voted almost unanimously for Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York's Senate race last November, while nearby Hasidic communities voted just as overwhelmingly for her Republican opponent, former representative Rick Lazio, the Post said.

Six weeks after the election, the Clintons held a 45-minute meeting at the White House with the leader of the ultra-orthodox New Square community, Grand Rabbi David Twersky, who lobbied for clemency for the four men, the Post reported.

The probe of the New Square case is an expansion of U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White's investigation of the former president's pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.

Rich's former wife, Denise Rich, donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes and $450,000 to help build Clinton's proposed presidential library.

Hillary Clinton has said that she played no role in the pardon process, and that she expressed no opinion about the Hasidic felons' clemency bids to her husband, the Post said.

The former president has denied granting pardons or commutations for any reasons other than the merits. The Post said representatives for both Clintons had no additional comments on Friday.

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