Hammer Wins Bush Pardon in Voting Law Case

WASHINGTON —  President Bush pardoned Los Angeles industrialist Dr. Armand Hammer on Monday, ending a decade-long quest by the 91-year-old founder of Occidental Petroleum Corp., who had pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 campaign.

White House officials, who normally do not release the names of people granted pardons, confirmed that Hammer was one of 10 pardoned by Bush on Monday after Hammer announced the decision in Los Angeles.

“I deeply appreciate President Bush’s action in clearing my name,” Hammer said in a prepared statement. “Having spent my lifetime fighting injustice, this vindication reinforces my abiding faith in the American system of justice.”

Long Quest

Hammer had been seeking a pardon almost since the moment he pleaded guilty--a second time--in 1976.

Associates have said that he and attorneys who represented him were deeply disappointed last year when then-President Ronald Reagan failed to include Hammer in a final round of pardons issued shortly before he left office. At the time, Reagan pardoned New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whose legal troubles, like Hammer’s, resulted from contributions made to Nixon’s reelection fund.

Hammer pleaded guilty twice to three misdemeanor charges involving $54,000 in illegal contributions to Nixon’s 1972 reelection. The first time was in October, 1975, when Hammer pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to the charges, which had been filed by the Watergate special prosecutor’s office.

But only days after entering the plea, Hammer sent a letter to his probation officer blaming the crimes on Occidental executive Timothy Babcock, a former governor of Montana. Prosecutors initially had learned of Hammer’s involvement in the illegal payments from Babcock, who had pleaded guilty to a related charge in 1974 and received a four-month jail sentence.

After hearing of Hammer’s letter, U.S. District Judge Walter B. Jones voided Hammer’s guilty plea and ordered him to stand trial. The case was subsequently moved to federal court in Los Angeles after doctors for Hammer told the judge that a heart ailment had made the industrialist too frail to travel.

Left Hospital

In March, 1976, under threat of a felony indictment, Hammer left a Los Angeles hospital and appeared before U.S. District Judge Lawrence T. Lydick.

Sitting upright in a wheelchair during a 20-minute court hearing, Hammer admitted in a soft but firm voice that he had concealed illegal campaign contributions to Nixon. He said he was “pleading guilty because I am guilty and not to avoid a trial.”

At his sentencing later, the millionaire oilman told Lydick: “This was the first time I have been charged with a criminal offense and I greatly regret my actions.” He was fined $3,000 and placed on one year’s probation.

As he later wrote in an autobiography, Hammer almost immediately “set out to clear my name.” He contended that an investigation he had started had turned up “exonerating evidence,” which became part of his plea for a pardon.

Hammer was unavailable to comment Monday on what that evidence might be.

In his long and colorful career, the Bronx-born Hammer, who was educated as a medical doctor, has been an enormously successful industrialist, who developed a remarkable relationship with the Soviet Union. He has met every Soviet leader since Lenin.

With his wealth, Hammer has collected fine art, endowed museums and contributed to cancer research with tens of millions of dollars in gifts.

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986, Hammer financed trips by American physicians to treat radiation victims.

David Lauter reported from Washington and John Kendall from Los Angeles. Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.