CCAR to White House Counsel: Sources President Relied On Are Tainted

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Office of the Executive Vice President

May 23, 1994

Mr. Lloyd Cutler
Special Counsel to President Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. Cutler:

Thank you for your response to my letter to President Clinton about Jonathan Pollard.

I can't help but point out that two of the three sources of counsel upon which the President relied are tainted, indeed suspect, and grievously so.

The Justice department, headed by Attorney General Reno, is accused of egregious wrongdoing in this very case and had actually been found so by Circuit Court justices. What kind of validity can be assigned to their opinion of whether or not they acted properly?

There is a similar, even worse, taint on the opinion of the Security services who, it is strongly suspected since the Ames case, are covering their misdeeds, incompetence and possible complicity in treasonous activity through manipulation of the Pollard case.

As for the private groups and individuals you mentioned, I assume that your coming late on the scene has prevented you from seeing the scores, perhaps hundreds of prestigious organizations of all kinds, all faiths, who have expressed consistently their outrage at this miscarriage of justice. There couldn't be very many "private organizations" left and I have my darker suspicions as to who they and the individuals you mentioned are and the sorry state of their motivations. For your edification, I enclose a not very recent list of organizations who have come out asking for commutation. You might want to compare it to whatever list you have of the private organizations who have spoken against Pollard.

Again, thank you for your attention to the matter. I know you have other things to do, and you may be sure, so do I, but this seems to be such a simple matter of principle, and the current status of it brings such shame on our Government for so many reasons, including now, lamentably, President Clinton's myopic decision, that it just keeps nagging at me. The evil that men like Caspar Weinberger do just goes on and on.

All good wishes to you in your difficult task

Sincerely yours,

Rabbi Joseph B. Glaser
Executive Vice President, CCAR

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