Friend of Clinton and Rich Takes Fifth

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 27 -- ABCNEWS has learned that just hours before President Clinton made the controversial decision to pardon a billionaire fugitive, two major financial supporters were at the White House, presumably pressing a clemency request for him that they’d been pushing for months.

According to a source close to the House Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the pardon of financier Marc Rich, White House records show Denise Rich, ex-wife of the fugitive, and Democratic fund-raiser Beth Dozoretz both entered the White House residence on Jan. 19, the day before Clinton left office.

Dozoretz, former finance chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, had been there at least 75 times before, and Denise Rich had been to the White House at least a dozen times previously, the records show.

Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., who reconvenes hearings Thursday aimed at determining whether Ms. Rich and her friends effectively purchased a pardon, wants to know what the two women were doing at the White House on Jan. 19 at 5:30 p.m.

But both women are refusing to talk to the committee. After Ms. Rich cited her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination earlier this month in refusing to testify, Dozoretz on Monday did the same.

But Dozoretz's husband, Ronald, told ABCNEWS that he and his wife were in California on Jan. 19.

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"We have proof," he said. He said they attended a party for a Hollywood producer.

Martin Pollner, an attorney for Denise Rich, said he didn’t think his client was at the White House at that time.

“I doubt that she was at the White House on Jan. 19,” he told ABCNEWS, then hung up.

Another Takes the Fifth

Dozoretz informed the House Government Reform Committee she will not testify at hearings Thursday on her role in securing the pardon for Marc Rich. In a letter to Burton, Dozoretz' lawyer cited her Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating herself.

"Because of the pendency of other investigations, Ms. Dozoretz, on advice of counsel, has elected to invoke her consitutional privilege not to testify," attorney Thomas Green wrote.