Clinton Pardons Former Rep. Rostenkowski

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton granted a Christmas pardon Friday to Dan Rostenkowski, perhaps the last of the old-fashioned barons of Congress, who had enormous clout in Washington under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

Rostenkowski, a Democrat, lost his powerful job as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after his conviction in 1996 on fraud charges for misusing office accounts to buy gifts for friends, including souvenir chairs from the House gift shop. He served 17 months in prison.

Rostenkowski was among 59 people granted pardons, including Archie Schaffer III, an executive of the Arkansas-based Tysons Chicken firm, who was convicted of trying to improperly influence former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Ironically, Espy was acquitted after a corruption trial, but Schaffer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for arranging for Espy to attend a party in Arkansas.

More pardons may be forthcoming, White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert said Friday.

“The president believes that from time to time it’s important to allow people to get a fresh start, to move on with their lives, to assume the . . . full rights of citizenship, and when it is appropriate, he has not hesitated to do that.

“I would not assume that this is the definitive list. What we’re trying to do is assess these on a rolling basis. . . . There may be more,” Siewert said.

Other prominent names have been circulating recently in Washington as possible recipients of presidential pardons. They include billionaire financier and philanthropist Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud, and Susan McDougal, a partner with the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate venture, who was jailed for refusing to testify about Whitewater. Another rumored name is Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Several hundred FBI agents, in an extraordinary public protest, marched in front of the White House last week to demonstrate opposition to clemency for Peltier.

Aside from high-profile political cases, the most common crimes committed by those pardoned Friday involved conspiracies to distribute drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. The president agreed to free two women who had received long prison terms although they were minor players in drug distribution networks.

Rostenkowski was by far the biggest name on Friday’s pardon list.

The former congressman was sitting alone in his office in Chicago on Friday morning when the phone rang and a White House aide said: “The president is going to sign a document pardoning you.” the Chicago Tribune reported.

“Are you sure?” Rostenkowski asked.

“It was total surprise,” he said later. “I didn’t expect it. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was absolutely amazed, and I had no one to tell.”

Although a product of the strongly partisan Democratic Party machine in Chicago, he worked well with President Reagan and congressional Republicans in crafting legislation.

During the 1986 debate over tax reform, he became a national celebrity, going on television to invite Americans to send their opinions to “Rosty, Washington, D.C.” He got letters by the thousand, using them as a gauge of public opinion as he played a pivotal role in lowering tax rates and simplifying the Internal Revenue Service code. When Bill Clinton recaptured the White House for the Democrats, Rostenkowski helped steer his legislative agenda through Ways and Means, which handles tax issues as well as Medicare and Social Security.

He pleaded guilty in April 1996 to two counts of misusing federal funds to buy gifts for friends and cronies from the House stationery store and to hire people for personal jobs like tending his lawn. The scandal had already cost him reelection in 1994.

He served 451 days in federal custody, most of it at a medium-security prison camp in Oxford, Wis. He was released Oct. 15, 1997, and went on probation for two years. The once paunchy Democrat, who underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1996, lost nearly 60 pounds in prison.

After being freed, Rostenkowski became a sort of elder statesman for the Democratic Party, offering his views on television talk shows and in editorial page columns. He remained friendly with the president and visited the White House.

Presidents traditionally issue pardons during the year-end holiday season without commenting on individual cases. There was a notable exception this year for Schaffer.

The White House issued a brief statement: “The trial judge in Archibald Schaffer’s case concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. The judge also said that the statute required him to impose a sentence that was neither just nor fair. The president believes that what happened here was wrong.”

Schaffer was convicted by a jury under a provision of the 1907 Meat Inspection Law. He was found guilty of using illegal means to influence Agriculture Department policy in 1993.

“I feel great. This is wonderful news,” Schaffer said in an interview with Associated Press. “I would have preferred to have been vindicated by the judicial system. We were prepared to continue battling that, but we’re pleased with this outcome as well.”

The two women pardoned Friday are Kemba Smith of Richmond, Va., who had been sentenced to 24 years in prison, and Dorothy Gaines of Mobile, Ala., who was given a 19-year, seven-month sentence.

“We’re really thrilled about the pardons of Dorothy Gaines and Kemba Smith, but we also are hoping that this is just the beginning,” said Laura Sager, executive director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “We hope that President Clinton, who has shown such integrity and compassion in releasing these women, will show the same compassion with others who are clearly not drug kingpins and let them go as well,” she said.

Her group and other sentencing reform organizations have lobbied the president to grant clemency to an entire class of federal inmates: nonviolent drug offenders who have received decades-long sentences, often for first-time offenses.

Gaines, a first-time offender, was speechless Friday afternoon when she learned that she would gain her freedom. “I said. ‘Dorothy, go pack!’ ” said her lawyer, Tracy Hubbard. “And there was nothing, just silence. I said, ‘Dorothy, go pack!’ and still nothing.” Then Gaines handed the phone to another inmate and started crying and screaming. Leaving her lawyer on the line, she ran to the prison bathroom sobbing.

A presidential pardon frees from prison a person convicted of a crime. For those who already have served their terms, it restores full civil rights, including the right to vote, which is denied to a convicted felon.

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Times staff writers Robert L. Jackson in Washington and Lisa Richardson in Los Angeles contributed to this story.