Roger & Rosario: Clinton, that is. And Gambino, that is

On January 16, 1996, Carol Getty, a top official at the U.S. Parole Commission, answered the telephone in her office at regional headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. Getty wasn't quite prepared for what happened next. The caller was President Clinton's brother, Roger, and he wanted to ask that a man named Rosario Gambino, an organized-crime figure serving 45 years in federal prison for heroin smuggling, be granted parole. As Clinton spoke, Getty became increasingly concerned. Clinton seemed familiar with some of the inner workings of the Parole Commission -- he said he knew the Kansas City office was scheduled to be closed soon and that Getty might not remain a commissioner for much longer, which wasn't public knowledge at the time -- and he told Getty he wanted to come by her office in the next day or two. Getty, who knew it would be improper for a commissioner to discuss the details of a case with a member of the public, much less the president's brother, said Clinton could meet with her staff. Then she ended the conversation and called her bosses in Washington.

The calls that day began an extraordinary debate inside the commission as officials realized that the president's brother was making appeals on behalf of a notorious mobster. Although it has long been known that Roger Clinton, during his brother's last days in office, tried to win a presidential pardon for Gambino, his attempts to influence the Parole Commission have received much less notice. In the summer of 1998 -- at about the same time Bill Clinton's sex-and-perjury scandal was reaching a crescendo -- Roger Clinton's efforts attracted the attention of the FBI, which tried to set up a sting operation in the case, only to be frustrated by a political appointee on the commission who feared that independent counsel Kenneth Starr was behind the investigation (he wasn't). The story, in all its intriguing detail, is told in "Justice Undone: Clemency Decisions in the Clinton White House," an impressively comprehensive report by the House Government Reform Committee that has so far received far less attention than it deserves.

Roger Clinton's involvement with the Gambino case began around 1995. As Clinton recalled in an interview with the FBI, he was in a nightclub in Beverly Hills when a man named Pasquale -- Clinton didn't remember his last name but knew he was the manager for an old rock singer named Gino Vannelli -- said he wanted Clinton to meet someone. It was Tommy Gambino, the son of Rosario Gambino, and a reputed crime figure himself. Tommy Gambino wanted Clinton's help in getting his father out of prison.

The two men became friends. Gambino showed Clinton the legal papers he had filed in efforts to get Rosario out of jail, and Clinton later told the FBI that he came to believe that Rosario had not been treated fairly. Clinton said he sympathized with Rosario's plight because he had once been in prison himself and knew what it was like.

It's not clear whether Clinton and Tommy Gambino had a financial arrangement. Gambino certainly seemed to have money. He sometimes gave Clinton "expense" money, and once gave him a check for $50,000. Gambino also asked Clinton whether he had ever owned a Rolex watch; Clinton said no. Gambino later gave him one, calling the gift an "Italian custom."

As his friendship with Tommy Gambino grew, Clinton decided to contact the Parole Commission on Rosario's behalf. After the first call on January 16, 1996, Carol Getty called Michael Gaines, a top official at the main office in suburban Washington, to tell him what had happened. The next morning, Clinton called the Kansas City office again, to say he would not be coming in because he had decided it would be better to go straight to the national headquarters. About two weeks later, on January 30, Clinton called Gaines and left a message with the secretary. It said, "Roger Clinton, very important. ASAP -- Re: brother recommended meeting."

Now it was Gaines's turn to be nervous. He wrote a memo to his file, saying, "I do not know Roger Clinton, and I have not spoken to him about this matter." He called the White House counsel's office to tell them about the message. And he got in touch with the Parole Commission's general counsel, Michael Stover, who volunteered to return Clinton's call. According to a memo Stover wrote after the call, Clinton told Stover that his brother, the president, was "completely aware of my involvement." Clinton also said the president had told him the Kansas City office would be closed soon, and that he should contact Washington instead.

Stover told Clinton that Gaines could not meet with him, which caused Clinton to become angry and raise his voice. After the conversation, Stover wrote that he was "disturbed at the tactic employed by Roger Clinton of repeatedly invoking his brother" and that the Parole Commission "must not permit itself to be subjected to improper attempts to exercise political influence over its procedures." Stover alerted the Justice Department, and also asked Gaines to call the White House to warn them about Clinton's actions.