An attorney who represented then-White House aide John Podesta during the Monica Lewinsky perjury investigation "kept me out of jail," according to Podesta, now the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The lawyer, Peter Kadzik, was later at the center of a scandal over Clinton White House pardons for family members of high-dollar Democratic donors.
Podesta heaped praise on Kadzik in a September 2008 email to the late Obama campaign operative Cassandra Butts, who, emails indicate, was searching for a lawyer to help vet potential staffers or appointees.
Podesta led the Obama transition team, and Butts served as its general counsel.
Kadzik, Podesta wrote, was "willing to help. Fantastic lawyer. Kept me out of jail. … Think he would be an excellent vet lead."
Kadzik represented Podesta when, as the Clinton White House’s deputy chief of staff, he testified before independent counsel Ken Starr’s grand jury in 1998.
He was also central to a scandal over the pardon of Marc Rich, a serial tax cheat who fled the United States before being pardoned by outgoing President Bill Clinton.
Rich’s ex-wife had previously donated $450,000 to the Clinton Library and more than $1 million to various Democratic political campaigns.f