Hillary's role in drug dealer's clemency probed

Hillary Clinton’s brother is being investigated to see if he used her name to get presidential clemency for a convicted cocaine dealer.

A Congressional committee probing President Clinton’s last-minute pardons asked Hugh Rodham if he told anyone at the White House that his sister supported a commutation for Carlos Vignali

Vignali, son of a major Democratic campaign contributor in Los Angeles, was serving a 15 year sentence for a drug conviction.

Republican Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, referred to a handwritten note on White House stationery that said, ‘‘Hugh says this is very important to him and the first lady as well as others.’’ The two-sentence note was unsigned.

It was located in a file maintained by former top White House aide Bruce Lindsey, Burton said.

Both Rodham and Hillary Clinton have denied that the then first lady knew about her brother’s pardon work.

Burton’s letter to Rodham also asked whether Hillary Clinton was ‘‘aware of your work on the Vignali matter?’’

Rodham, through his lawyer Nancy Luque, told Burton’s committee in February that he had no contact with the president or the first lady about his work on the Vignali commutation.

Hugh Rodham came under fire when it was learned that he had received £140,000 for his work on the prison commutation of Vignali and the pardon request of Almon Glenn Braswell.

The commutation of Vignali’s sentence and Braswell’s pardon were among 177 pardons and clemencies Clinton granted just before leaving the White House.

Rodham bowed to his sister’s demand that he return the money.

Hillary Clinton, now a New York senator, reiterated yesterday she did not know about her brother’s work.

‘‘I didn’t know anything and that’s what I’ve said, that’s what my brother’s lawyer has said, that happens to be the truth,’’ she said.