US federal prosecutors are investigating whether former president Mr Bill Clinton commuted the fraud sentences of four Jewish leaders from New York for their support for his wife's Senate race, the Washington Postreported today.
The four leaders of the tightly knit New Square community were convicted in 1999 of stealing more than $30 million in government funds. They received prison sentences ranging from 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 years. Mr Clinton commuted their sentences to 24 to 30 months, the paper said.
New Square residents voted almost unanimously for Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York's Senate race last November, while nearby Hasidic communities voted just as overwhelmingly for her Republican opponent, Mr Rick Lazio, the article said.
Six weeks after the election, the Clintons held a 45-minute meeting at the White House with the leader of the ultra-orthodox New Square community, Grand Rabbi David Twersky, who lobbied for clemency for the four men, according to the article.
The probe of the New Square case is an expansion of an investigation of the former president's pardon of fugitive billionaire Mr Mark Rich.