For Immediate Release >>
Sunday, October 24th, 1999
NATION (doc #54) Are Hillary's Brothers Driving off Course?
A TIME report into the business activities of Tony and Hugh Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton's brothers, has found that there have been at least two occasions where the Rodhams obtained White House meetings with top administration officials on behalf of their business associates. President Clinton even agreed to a scheduled drop-by with the Mayor of Moscow after Tony Rodham arranged for him to come to White House at a time when Rodham's clients were hoping to secure the mayor's support for a lucrative business deal in Moscow. Sources also tell TIME that Hugh Rodham is one of several lawyers who began negotiating a possible settlement with a gun industry trade group earlier this year and helped to arrange a White House meeting in early May. "So far, the Rodhams themselves don't seem to have made much money from their White House connections, but their sister's expected run for the U.S. Senate means their business dealings could provide more fodder for the Clintons' many political foes," report TIME's Viveca Novak and Jay Branegan. The story, "Are Hillary's Brothers Driving Off Course?" will appear in TIME's Nov. 1 issue (on newsstands Mon.)
When he's approached by those who want to exploit his family ties, Tony Rodham tells TIME, "I tell them to take a hike. I don't do business that way." But in 1997, TIME has learned that Tony Rodham arranged a White House meeting for Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov at the request of Gene Prescott, who was involved with a start-up company that hoped to bring 'smart' credit-debit cards to Russia with Luzhkov's support. As reports linked Luzhkov to members of the Russian mafia, Tony Rodham's request on his behalf made things very uncomfortable for Sandy Berger, the national security adviser, according to someone familiar with the episode. Nevertheless, in April 1997, Berger agreed to meet with Luzhkov and President Clinton arranged to stop by.
Last August, the Rodham brothers and sometime partner Stephen Graham flew to Batumi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to look over a potential $118 million hazelnut operation. But they tumbled into the Byzantine world of post-Soviet politics. Batumi is ruled by Aslan Abashidze, a powerful rival to U.S. ally and Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze; Abashidze feted them for the huge investment they were expected to bring. While Tony Rodham says Abashidze did not exploit his White House connections, Shevardnadze sympathizers say he used the visit to claim he had a seal of approval from the U.S. government, a useful imprimatur in upcoming elections. Berger told the brothers to end the hazelnut deal and after first resisting, they relented. But Tony Rodham tells TIME that he is "restructuring" the venture and complains he and his brother are victims of a pro-Shevardnadze disinformation campaign.
Sources also tell TIME that Hugh Rodham was one of several lawyers who began negotiating a possible settlement with a gun-industry trade group earlier this year. Robert Ricker, the former head of the group, said Hugh Rodham helped arrange a White House meeting in early May with White House counsel Bruce Lindsey, domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed and others. "He took me aside once and told me he'd...filled [the Clintons] in on the status of the talks," says Ricker. "He was a serious player." Hugh Rodham also played a role in White House negotiations over a possible tobacco settlement, which drew criticism from Republican Senators. He told TIME, "It was totally unforeseen, when we joined...that there would be any connection with politics."
