(Washington, DC) –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that its researchers obtained 34 photos from the Clinton Presidential Library of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-President Bill Clinton and Grand Rabbi David Twersky at a White House meeting during which the Grand Rabbi and other community leaders allegedly lobbied the Clintons to commute the jail sentences of four Hasidic men convicted of stealing $30 million in government education aid.  The meeting took place in December 2000, just after the New York based Hasidim sect delivered 1,400 votes to Hillary Clinton’s Senate 2000 campaign and only 12 to her opponent Rick Lazio.

This was the second meeting between Hillary Clinton and representatives of the Hasidic men.  Prior to the election, in August 2000, Hillary Clinton visited New Square, the Hasidic community just outside of New York City.

According to the New York Times when the Clinton pardons were announced:  “The four [Hasidic men] were among roughly a dozen New Yorkers prosecuted by the United States attorney's office in Manhattan who received either pardons or reduced sentences from Mr. Clinton…The New York decisions stirred a backlash from prosecutors involved in the cases because in several instances their views were overruled or barely solicited.”  In the last days of his presidency, Bill Clinton granted 140 pardons and commuted 36 sentences (a scandal that became known as Pardongate), many of them to convicted felons who had paid large fees to Clinton associates, including Hillary Clinton’s brothers.  The pardons and commuted sentences were subjects of a criminal investigation that failed to produce charges. 

“A picture is worth a thousand words.  These new photos undermine Hillary Clinton’s claim that she played no role in the commuted sentences granted these criminals.  If that is true, then why attend a White House meeting evidently set up to discuss the pardons?  How did these community leaders get an invitation to the Clinton White House?  The situation screams quid pro quo” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “These new photos show the importance of releasing Hillary Clinton’s other White House records.”

Judicial Watch is now pursuing a lawsuit against the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to obtain Hillary Clinton’s White House official calendar, schedule, and day planner, and related documents.

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