Roger Clinton was hacking his way through a friendly game of golf in 1999 when his foursome was interrupted by a visitor who handed Clinton a box containing a Rolex watch. The encounter might have been forgotten but for a few salient details.
Current and former federal government officials say the young man who delivered the watch was Tommy Gambino, son of a convicted heroin trafficker serving a 45-year sentence. And unknown to Clinton, his golf partners included two Air Force intelligence officers who reported the incident and said that Clinton had said he was "helping" Tommy Gambino's father, Rosario Gambino.
In September 1999, two FBI agents went to Clinton's home in Redondo Beach, Calif., to ask him about his relationship with Rosario Gambino, who prosecutors have repeatedly said is an associate of the Gambino crime family and a distant relative of Carlo Gambino, the late crime boss.
Clinton, the half-brother of the former president, acknowledged he had lobbied the U.S. Parole Commission for the early release of Rosario Gambino, according to the bureau's account of the interview.
Two years later, Roger Clinton is the subject of congressional and federal investigations of influence peddling and other possible illegalities in last-minute pardons granted by President Bill Clinton. Shortly before President Clinton left office, Roger Clinton assured Tommy Gambino that his father was a "lock" for a pardon, a person close to Tommy Gambino has said in an interview. Rosario Gambino's name was on a list sent by the White House to the Justice Department in late January for possible clemency, but no pardon was granted.
Roger Clinton's campaign on Gambino's behalf was persistent and inventive, documents and interviews show. He made at least four visits to the parole commission's headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md. He tried to exploit his ties to an Arkansas parole commissioner. He invoked his brother's authority. He produced listings from a Sicilian telephone book to show that Gambino was a common Italian name and that thus not every Gambino was tied to the famous New York crime family.
"Every time the phone rang, you thought, 'Oh, no, is it Roger Clinton again?"' recalled Thomas C. Kowalski, a parole commission staff member.