Man’s Pardon for ’83 Crime Can’t Aid Him in L.A. Probe

WASHINGTON —  A spokesman for former President Clinton insisted Tuesday that a controversial pardon granted to a Los Angeles area entrepreneur only was meant to cover his conviction of nearly two decades ago--not a current federal criminal investigation into the man’s business dealings.

In addition, the Justice Department has concluded that the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles can move forward with its ongoing review of Almon Glenn Braswell and potential felonies involving his offshore corporations and accounts, two officials said.

“It certainly was not the president’s intent to have this pardon cover anything other than the crime in 1983,” said Jake Siewert, the former White House spokesman who still works for Clinton. “That is what was considered and reviewed by our counsel’s office.”

Braswell was convicted of perjury and mail fraud related to his marketing of health treatments. His Gero Vita International company, based in Marina del Rey, markets herbs, vitamins and other health treatments.

He now is a target of a criminal tax evasion and money-laundering investigation centered on allegations that he set up a Bermuda-based shell company to falsely mark up the cost of his products.

Siewert said that Clinton looked at the Braswell pardon petition as a rather routine matter, even though one of Braswell’s lawyers was Kendall Coffey--the former U.S. attorney in Miami who helped former Vice President Al Gore in the presidential election recount last fall.

Siewert also said that Coffey made no “personal” entreaties to Clinton. In the pardon of longtime fugitive Marc Rich, his lawyer--former Clinton White House Counsel Jack Quinn--personally met with the president to press his case.

Siewert conceded, however, that the Braswell pardon request came to the White House without first going through the normal background checks and recommendation process at the Justice Department’s pardon office.

Had that happened, Siewert conceded, the Clinton White House might have learned about the ongoing federal criminal investigation.

The Los Angeles probe is based on a 1999 search of Braswell’s business. Court documents later filed in Santa Monica show that federal authorities are investigating whether Braswell created a company that does not exist in order to move money out of the United States.

No charges have been filed against Braswell, officials said.

Neither he nor Coffey could be reached for comment Tuesday.

“As the case was presented to the president,” Siewert said, “it was a white-collar criminal who did something in the early ‘80s. It was not a violent offense. The case had been resolved, and [Braswell] wanted to get back to a normal business life.”

But, Siewert added, “I don’t know how this one got on the list at the same time as the others.”

Braswell’s petition was submitted at the last minute, one of about two dozen that were hurriedly sent directly to the White House.

And, Siewert said, the Coffey connection was known among several White House staffers.

“Some people in the counsel’s office were aware [Coffey] was involved in the case, but . . . as far as we can tell, it was not like he came in personally and talked to the president in the last week. Nothing like that,” Siewert said.

At first, officials in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles were concerned that a presidential pardon might be construed as blanket immunity and absolve Braswell for any past crimes and, more important, crimes currently under investigation.

But a copy of the “Executive Grant of Clemency” makes clear that the “full and unconditional pardon” is for the 1983 case alone.

The one-paragraph citation states that the pardon is “for his conviction” in “Georgia on three indictments . . . for which he was sentenced on Dec. 5, 1983, to three years’ imprisonment, followed by five years’ probation.”

The pardon was granted on Jan. 20, Clinton’s last morning in office.

It is unclear whether Braswell, through Coffey, sought the pardon for anything other than the 1983 case.

The petition for the pardon was not released by the Clinton team, which said it was still transferring truckloads of presidential papers and other materials to Little Rock, Ark., for eventual public review at the Clinton presidential library there.

Braswell’s business of selling mail-order health products has come under the scrutiny of health care professionals.

Dr. Stephen Barrett, who operates a consumer watchdog agency, is highly critical of Braswell’s Gero Vita products and said they are not what they are made out to be.

“A. Glenn Braswell sells pills and potions through the mail,” Barrett said on his Quackwatch Internet home page. “During the past 25 years, he has probably taken in more money and more people than any similar marketer in U.S. history.”

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are considering including the Braswell matter in their own investigation of several of the 140 pardons issued by Clinton at the end of his presidency. The House Government Reform Committee, which will begin hearings Thursday, would like to question Quinn about the Rich pardon.

“We’re aware of Braswell, and we’re aware of this problem,” said Mark Corallo, spokesman for the panel.

But he said no decision has yet been made into whether a full-scale investigation should be launched into why and how the Braswell pardon was facilitated.

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Times staff writer David Rosenzweig in Los Angeles contributed to this story.