Meet Roger Clinton, Bill Clinton’s controversial half-brother: Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter before leaving office … so what do we know about Roger, who also received a presidential pardon?
Roger was jailed after selling cocaine to an undercover officer, and later he was paid by others to lobby for pardons from Bill – nicknamed ‘headache’ by the Secret Service, Roger was also a singer
Hunter’s pardon means he has sidestepped potential prison time related to a sentence on tax and gun charges, according to CBS.
Bill pardoned his half-brother Roger in 2001, also just before he left office. Roger had been convicted of cocaine possession and drug trafficking in 1985. Now, more than 20 years later, Roger’s name has re-emerged as the US debates the powers of presidential pardons.
Per The Miller Centre, Bill’s biological father died a few months before he was born. Bill’s mother remarried Roger Clinton, an abusive alcoholic. Per Time, Bill used to take his younger brother with him everywhere to escape the abuse of Roger Sr.
But who is Roger and what were the circumstances around his pardon? Here is what you need to know.
What did Bill Clinton say about his half-brother Roger recently?
According to The Hill, Bill commented on pardoning Roger while speaking at the DealBook Summit in December, addressing the comparisons that have been made between his situation and Joe’s pardon of Hunter. Per the publication, the former US president said his half-brother had served time and was unable to vote because he was a felon.
“My brother did 14 months in federal prison for something he did when he was 20, and I supported it, and he testified, told the truth about what he’d done when he had a drug problem and helped to bring down a larger enterprise.” According to Fox News, Bill went on to add that his concern was about Roger’s future. “The real question was, would he ever be able to vote again? Would he ever be able to have normal citizenship responsibilities?”
So why was Roger Clinton in prison?
Per The Washington Post, Roger was arrested in 1984 during an Arkansas state police sting. The Hill reports he was sentenced to more than a year in jail after pleading guilty to selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was released from federal prison in 1986 and caused the Clinton family such problems, the code name given to him by the Secret Service was “headache”.