WASHINGTON, March 14: Roger Clinton, half-brother of former US president Bill Clinton, acted as paid representative for up to 15 people seeking pardons or sentence reductions after the president urged him to “capitalize on their relationship”, a Republican-led congressional panel has concluded.

Released on Thursday, the report by the US House of Representatives Government Reform Committee portrays Roger Clinton as having been involved in about three times as many pardons and commutations as he has publicly acknowledged and says he apparently reneged on a promise to repay much of his hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.

Roger Clinton’s attorney, Bart Williams, did not return a telephone call to his Los Angeles office.

Based on a year-long probe, the Republican-written report rips into the ex-president for the nearly 200 pardons and commutations he handled on his last day in office on Jan. 20, 2001 — and drew prompt Democratic fire.

“I’m disappointed that the report substitutes innuendo for evidence and contains significant omissions,” said Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

“The Government Reform Committee seems stuck in a time warp,” Waxman said. “At some point the Republicans will have to come to grips with the fact Bill Clinton is no longer president.”

The committee is chaired with Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican who frequently clashed with Clinton during his eight years in the White House.

Julia Payne, a spokeswoman for former President Clinton, brushed off the report as being rife with unfounded charges.

“Pardons by their nature are controversial,” Payne added. “Other presidents have made controversial pardons that were not subject to partisan investigations.”

The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times first reported the findings of the report on Wednesday — two days after Democrats on the House committee got their first look at it.

The most controversial Clinton pardon went to Marc Rich, a commodities trader who fled the country in 1983 rather than face trial on a variety of charges, including tax evasion.—Reuters