Roger Clinton denies pardons-for-pay scheme

Roger Clinton

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former President Clinton's half-brother Thursday vehemently denied claims that he received money for promises of winning presidential pardons, a charge now being considered by a federal grand jury in New York.

"There is no truth to money for pardons. There is zero truth to that, zero truth," Roger Clinton said in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live.

A federal grand jury in New York is investigating the flurry of 176 pardons and commutations President Clinton granted on his last day in office, January 20.

Roger Clinton was responding to an article in the Los Angeles Times in which federal inmate Garland Lincecum said he paid a company about $235,000 for a promised pardon, and that the company has ties to Roger Clinton. The newspaper says Lincecum testified before the federal grand jury June 6.

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The article says Lincecum, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, never met with Roger Clinton but spoke to him on the phone. Lincecum told the newspaper that Roger told him, "We're working to solve your problem ... I can get anything from my brother."

Clinton, 44, said Thursday he did ask his brother for pardons for some close friends, but that none of them were granted, although he himself did win a pardon for a 1985 drug conviction for which he served a prison sentence.

He said he was hurt and angry that his friends didn't get their pardons and that he didn't talk to his brother for a while because of it.

"He'd [Bill Clinton] called a couple of times, and I didn't return the calls. I was really mad," Roger Clinton said.

He also railed at the justice system and the media.

"I am very disappointed in what seemingly is a system that allows me to be guilty until proven innocent," Clinton said. "I have been internationally labeled and branded what -- an extortionist, whatever, a drunk driver..."

Accompanied by lawyer Mark Geragos, who also represented former Clinton friend Susan McDougal -- also granted a presidential pardon -- Roger was at times restrained from talking about the Lincecum accusations.

Geragos would not say whether Clinton had been subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury in the pardons matter.

Regarding his February 17 arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, Clinton said it was the result of a set-up and that police had been watching him the whole night.

"I wasn't driving erratically. That's the biggest bunch of crap I've ever heard," he said after hearing a police spokesman's written account of why Clinton's car was stopped that night in Hermosa, California.

Geragos said Clinton will appear in court Monday for a pre-trial hearing on charges of DUI and disturbing the peace.