What's That Smell?

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But it wasn't the only one. Other controversial recipients of Clinton's parting gifts included four Orthodox Jews from New York State who had bilked the government out of $40 million in education aid, housing subsidies and small-business loans. During Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign, the First Lady visited the Skver sect in New Square, N.Y., trying, successfully, to lock in a group that usually swings Republican. After the Skver turned out in force for Hillary, she invited the group's spiritual leader to the White House, where he asked the President to lighten the men's sentences. The subsequent commutations only heightened suspicions--vehemently denied by Clinton and the Skver--that there was a quid pro quo for their support on Election Day. And if that weren't bad enough, there was also the matter of $190,000 in gifts, including $7,000 in furniture from Denise Rich, that Bill and Hillary hauled in as they were leaving the White House--which means that President Clinton's final scandal is Senator Clinton's first.

But it's the Rich pardon--and especially the fact that Clinton granted it without consulting the Justice Department--that has generated the most heat on Capitol Hill. Though the pardon can't be revoked, Representative Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican and longtime Clinton critic who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, has already started gathering documents for a hearing; Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle says it may be time to re-examine the President's pardon power. Even by Clinton's own reasoning, which he voiced in a speech two days before the pardon, Rich did not seem to qualify. "Most of these people should be able to vote and be full citizens," he said, "because they've paid."

During the past two decades, Rich has paid in his own inimitable way, doling out about $200 million to various charities. He also made overtures toward settling with the government for as much as $100 million. But "it was never about the money," says Morris ("Sandy") Weinberg, the original lead prosecutor alongside Giuliani, who now practices law in Tampa, Fla. "If the biggest tax evaders in the U.S. never did jail time, we could never prosecute another tax case."

It's no wonder, then, that in the fall of 1999, when Quinn contacted the U.S. Attorney's office in New York about making a deal, he got, as he says, "the back of the hand" from U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White. In Quinn's view, the original criminal prosecution of Rich was flawed, making an example of him for an offense that other oil companies had simply been fined for. But the Justice Department wasn't buying it. Officials insisted that no negotiations could begin until Rich went home to face the music.

By Thanksgiving 2000, Quinn had started a new game. During a meeting at the Justice Department on Nov. 21, he notified Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder of his plan to file a pardon petition with the White House. He asked Holder if he wanted a copy. Holder, who assumed that the White House would forward the petition to the Justice Department's pardon attorney for review, as was customary, said he personally did not. On Dec. 11, Quinn delivered the massive document, about the size of a phone book, which TIME has seen, to the office of White House Counsel Beth Nolan.