Pardon of pill tycoon questioned

Clinton pardoned a man still under federal investigation in a money-laundering case.

By TIM NICKENS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001

Of the 140 pardons President Clinton handed out in his final days in office, Glenn Braswell's stands out as one of the oddest.

It turns out the multimillionaire owner of a waterfront home in Miami and a mail-order business that sells questionable pills was under federal investigation when Clinton granted the pardon last month.

It turns out that a Clinton spokesman now says the president did not know about the continuing investigation when he pardoned a man who once contributed $150,000 to the Florida Republican Party and $25,000 to President Bush's campaign.

And it turns out that Braswell counts among his lawyers a member of the firm that represented Clinton during his impeachment -- and Miami lawyer Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney who was one of Al Gore's lawyers during the recount of Florida votes.

What is not known is how Coffey, who is reported to have represented Braswell in seeking a pardon, or someone else managed to avoid the Justice Department and bring Braswell's case directly to Clinton without alerting the president of Braswell's continuing legal troubles.

"If it had gone through normal channels, it never would have gotten through," John Stanish, who handled pardons at the Justice Department during the Carter administration, said in an interview Wednesday. "Nobody ever gets a pardon when they are under active investigation for other offenses -- ever."

Braswell did.

The 57-year-old marketer of herbal remedies and potions of questionable value was under investigation by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles in connection with "a massive tax evasion and money-laundering scheme," according to court documents filed in 1999.

Now some experts on presidential pardons are questioning whether Clinton effectively killed that investigation by granting Braswell a pardon.

Documents released by the Justice Department this week state that Braswell received an executive grant of clemency for "his convictions . . . on three indictments for which he was sentenced on Dec. 5, 1983." And a Clinton spokesman said the president's intention was for the pardon to cover only those convictions.

But Stanish said that may not be the final word.

"If I were Braswell's attorney," he said, "I sure as heck would have a reasonable argument that it doesn't just relate to the convictions of the early '80s, and that it actually includes anything and everything up to the time of the actual pardon."

Coffey did not return several telephone calls Wednesday. Gerald Feffer of the Washington firm of Williams & Connolly, who represents Braswell in the tax-evasion and money-laundering investigation, also could not be reached for comment.

But Feffer told U.S. News & World Report that Williams & Connolly played no role in Braswell's pardon. He said the firm would have a conflict of interest because partner David Kendall is Clinton's personal lawyer. Braswell's pardon is one of an estimated 30 or so granted by Clinton that did not go through routine scrutiny by the Justice Department.

In 1983, Braswell was convicted for fraud, perjury and tax evasion. Since then he and his mail-order business have been criticized by the Food and Drug Administration, Consumer Reports and other independent groups for misleading marketing and claims of selling cures for baldness, arthritis and other ailments.

Braswell attracted attention in Florida last year after the St. Petersburg Times reported his contributions to the state GOP and to George W. Bush. The Times also reported how Braswell got Gov. Jeb Bush to write an article for his alternative health magazine, Journal of Longevity.

The article in the July issue of Braswell's magazine was altered to make it appear that Bush was endorsing alternative medications like the ones Braswell sells. Both the state GOP and the George W. Bush campaign returned Braswell's contributions.

Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who runs Quackwatch.com, a Web site that monitors medical fraud, said Wednesday that the publicity surrounding Braswell's pardon may prod criminal investigators to step up their efforts against him.

"I think it's going to backfire," Barrett said. "The people who are after him now have an additional reason to go after him."

- Times wire services contributed to this report.

Recent coverage

Proper clemencies (January 25, 2001)

. . . and an unpardonable pardon (January 25, 2001)

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