Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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Bill Clinton ’73JD

By the staff | 12:02pm August 07 2009

It took 20 hours, one dinner with the head of state, and one crucial apology to win the reversal of a 12-year sentence for two American journalists in North Korea. That, and the prestige of an ex-US president who just happens to be married to the secretary of state. Laura Ling and Euna Lee returned to Los Angeles in the company of Bill Clinton ’73JD on Wednesday, more than four months after they were arrested and imprisoned in North Korea while researching human trafficking near the Chinese border. North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Il, invited Clinton to dinner and pardoned the two women after Clinton apologized for their actions. According to the New York Times, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ’73JD considered asking other dignitaries to undertake the mission—including Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s vice president and founder of the journalists’ employer, Current TV—but settled on her husband when North Korea sent word that it preferred his presence. Once a rock star…

Filed under Law School, celebrities, journalism
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