Ms. Rich Takes The 5th

The former wife of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich is refusing to answer questions from a congressional committee probing President Clinton's controversial pardon of her ex-husband.

"Ms. Rich is asserting her privilege under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution not to be a witness against herself," her attorney, Carol Bruce, said in a letter to the panel.

But the panel did learn that the woman, Denise Rich, gave an "enormous sum of money" to the Clinton Presidential Library Fund, committee chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., said Thursday. CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante reports that figure is about $400,000.

Ms. Rich also contributed over $1 million to Democratic candidates over the years, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's successful Senate campaign.

The panel may ask the Justice Department for a grant of immunity for Ms. Rich in order to compel her testimony, Burton said later.

The House Government Reform Committee is examining Mr. Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich just hours before he left office on January 20. Rich has lived in Switzerland since just before he was indicted in the United States in 1983 on charges of evading more than $48 million in taxes, fraud and participating in illegal oil deals with Iran.

In other news from Thursday's hearing, the Justice Department's former No. 2 official testified that he would have tried to stop Mr. Clinton from pardoning Rich if he had known the full details of the fugitive financier's case.

"Knowing everything that I know now, I would not have recommended to the president that he grant the pardon," former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Holder, however, acknowledged he did not pay much attention to Rich's case in the flood of pardon requests that came to the Justice Department in Mr. Clinton's last days. In addition, notes about Rich's case were misdelivered and there was a misunderstanding between the White House and the Justice Department about the pardon's chances for success.

"The whole thing ended up falling through the cracks," said the committee's ranking Democrat, California Rep. Henry Waxman.

Committee Republicans saw more sinister dealings.

"It's like Keystone Cops, but I don't think it is," said Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga. "I think the president knew exactly what he was doing."

Marc Rich's attorney, Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel, told the panel that flawed prosecution of his client — built on "a legal house of cards" — justified a last-minute presidential pardon for the fugitive financier.

Quinn said New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the then-U.S. attorney who prosecuted Rich along with then-assistant U.S. attorneys Martin Auerbach and Morris Weinberg Jr., had misused the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) to indict his client.

"The case was based on a meritless tax charge, which formed the basis for the fraud charge, which was the predcate for the RICO. It was a misuse of RICO on top of misuse of RICO predicates and underlying it all, a tax and energy case with no merit. The case was flawed," he said.

Quinn added Rich refused to return to America to face the charges because he thought he could not get a fair trial, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Schieffer.

Countering Quinn's arguments before the committee were Weinberg and Auerbach, who said Rich and his partner, Pincus Green, wouldn't have fled the country and renounced their citizenship if the government had no real case.

"It was the overwhelming nature of the evidence that undoubtedly caused Mr. Rich and Mr. Green to flee 17 years ago," Weinberg said.

And, if the government's case against Rich and Green was a house of cards like Quinn said, "It was all aces," Auerbach said.

Mr. Clinton said Tuesday that Rich's attorneys, including Quinn, "made a persuasive case" for the pardon, adding that Justice Department officials approved it before it was issued.

Under the Constitution, Congress cannot overturn the pardon for Rich or anyone else, because the president's power to pardon is absolute and not subject to appeal.

© MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report