Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

The Face of Scandal | Vanity Fair

The fact that Marc Rich cheated on her after they fled to Switzerland 17 years ago, that he participated in the biggest tax fraud in U.S. history, that he traded with Iran during the hostage crisis and defiantly renounced vanityfair.com/news/2001/06/r…

his U.S. citizenship rather than face a trial here—all that has been washed away with a mother’s tears.

Rich also believes “there is definitely a black person inside [of me] waiting to get out. I’m sure I was once black.” Natalie Cole, who is a close friend, told me one night in the living room of Rich’s New York penthouse that before Denise’s photo got published so often,

“people thought she was black.” Rich has a staff of six maids, two butlers, a cook, and a secretary, as well as two drivers, two masseuses, a hairdresser, a trainer, a yoga instructor, and a personal photographer on call. Her imagist often travels with her, as does Jimmy Hester,

the vice president of Denise Rich Songs. After 25 years of being held down by a controlling husband, Denise Rich likes to flaunt it.

“ ‘Oh no, no, no,’ ” Boles says he told her. “ ‘If you’re going to be in New York, you’ve got to be fabulous! You can only wear Manolo Blahnik.’

So the next thing you know, the whole closet is filled with Manolo Blahniks. He has the best toe cleavage.” The sexy Manolos run about $500, but Rich doesn’t seem to mind, since recently in one of her giant closets, which are organized by season.

She still has a great figure, and she has elected to keep her own cleavage, which she is proud to display. With her big brown eyes and superglossed lips, Rich gives the illusion of being younger.

Bill Clinton appears at one fund-raiser in a bright-blue shirt and yellow tie. “He’s always very relaxed here,” Rich says. “We are not judgmental.” Noticeable in one photo of Patti LaBelle’s birthday party in September 1998—a full year before his services were engaged by Marc

Rich to handle his pardon petition—is former White House counsel Jack Quinn. “I’ve known Jack socially for a long time,” Rich explains, but she says she did not recommend him to her ex-husband.

Until late 2016, he was a director of Constellis, a holding company that includes several private security companies (including Academi, Triple Canopy, and The Olive Group) that provide security services and training to both governmental and private sector clients. Quinn

co-chaired the Governance and Compliance Committee of Academi with former Attorney General and Senator John Ashcroft.

Since 2011 he sits on the board of directors for the private military company Academi (formerly Blackwater), has been a member of the Federalist Society,

and is a professor at the Regent University School of Law, a conservative Christian institution affiliated with televangelist Pat Robertson.
His son, Jay Ashcroft, is also a politician, serving as Secretary of State of Missouri since January, 2017.

In December 2000, following his Senatorial defeat, Ashcroft was chosen for the position of U.S. attorney general by president-elect George W. Bush.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Ashcroft was a key administration supporter of passage of the

USA Patriot Act. One of its provisions, Section 215, allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to apply for an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require production of "any tangible thing" for an investigation.

While Attorney General, Ashcroft consistently denied that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency had used the Patriot Act to obtain library circulation records or those of retail sales. According to the sworn testimony of two FBI agents interviewed by the 9/11 Commission,

Ashcroft ignored warnings of an imminent al-Qaida attack.

In March 2004, the Justice Department under Ashcroft ruled President Bush's domestic intelligence program illegal.[25] Shortly afterward, he was hospitalized with acute gallstone pancreatitis.[25] White House Counsel

Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. went to Ashcroft's bedside in the hospital intensive-care unit, to persuade the incapacitated Attorney General to sign a document to reauthorize the program.[25] Acting Attorney General James Comey alerted FBI Director

Robert Mueller III of this plan, and rushed to the hospital, arriving ahead of Gonzales and Card, Jr. Ashcroft, "summoning the strength to lift his head and speak", refused to sign.

According to government filings, Oracle is one of five Ashcroft Group clients that seek help in selling data or software with security applications. Another client, Israel Aircraft Industries International, is competing with Seattle's Boeing Company to sell the government of

South Korea a billion dollar airborne radar system.[36]
In March 2006, Ashcroft positioned himself as an "anti-Abramoff". In an hour-long interview, Ashcroft used the word integrity scores of times.[

In 2011, Ashcroft became an “independent director” on the board of Xe Services (now Academi), the controversial private military company formerly known as Blackwater (Nisour Square massacre), which faced scores of charges related to weapons trafficking, unlawful force, and

corruption[40] had named Ted Wright as CEO in May 2011.[41] Wright hired a new governance chief to oversee ethical and legal compliance and established a new board composed of former government officials, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn and Ashcroft.[42] In

December 2011, Xe Services rebranded to Academi to convey a more "boring" image.[

The firm also has a law firm under its umbrella, called the Ashcroft Law Firm.[47] In December 2014, the law firm was hired by convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout to overturn his 2011 conviction.[

In June 2017, Ashcroft was hired by the government of Qatar to carry out a compliance and regulatory review of Qatar's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework, to help challenge accusations of supporting terrorism by its neighbors, following a regional

blockade, as well as claims by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In June 2018, Ashcroft was reportedly hired by Najib Razak among other top U.S lawyers to defend him in the 1MDB scandal, back in 2016. According to the document, the firm was hired to provide legal advice and counsel to Najib regarding "improper actions by third parties to

attempt to destabilise the government of Malaysia". Although it is unsure whether Najib will retain the services of Ashcroft on the issue due to the United States Department of Justice's probe into 1MDB.

When Karl Rove was being questioned in 2005 by the FBI over the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity in the press (the Valerie Plame affair), Ashcroft was allegedly briefed about the investigation. The Democratic U.S. Representative John Conyers described this as a "stunning

ethical breach that cries out for an immediate investigation." Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked, in a statement, for a formal investigation of the time between the start of Rove's investigation and John Ashcroft's recusal.

With fellow U.S. senators Trent Lott, Larry Craig, and Jim Jeffords, Ashcroft formed a barbershop quartet called The Singing Senators.

Ashcroft composed a paean titled "Let the Eagle Soar," which he sang at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in February 2002. Ashcroft has written and sung a number of other songs🙈⤵️