Access to justice has a new price: a good deal at the Mondrian.
With hours left in his presidency, Barack Obama is doing his best to infuriate. First he commuted the sentence of a traitor, Army Private Chelsea Manning. At least, reasonable people on the the Left might be able to debate the merits on that one. Now, comes Ian Schrager.
With all the millions of Americans who have fought to remake their lives. All the people who made mistakes, and never really managed to get past them, Obama has found it in his heart to wipe the record clean for a man who builds expensive nightclubs and hotels for wealthy people to indulge. A brilliant creative who made his name curating a wonderland which was all about exclusivity and the elite of the elite.
Along with his partner, Steve Rubell, Schrager created the New York nightclub Studio 54. It became a symbol of total decadence in the 1970s. The whole place ran on Peruvian marching powder. The patrons flocked to the basement to do cocaine. How did all the blow get there? And what about the cash stashed in the ceiling? It was Caligula in midtown Manhattan. So many famous people came to Studio 54, and did such dirty things, that when the government finally caught up with Schrager and his partner, a major part of their defense was a sort of blackmail l ploy with veiled threats to expose truths about higher ups.
In 1979, when the partners agreed to a plea bargain of two years in jail for tax fraud, The Washington Post wrote, “there was no mention at the brief court hearing about any cooperation by the two men in the government’s investigation of alleged cocaine use by White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan. The nightclub owners (first gained national notoriety) … when Schrager’s attorney, Mitchell Rogovin, alleged that Rubell had seen Jordan using cocaine at Studio 54 in 1977. Rogovin said he hoped to trade his client’s testimony for a better deal on the tax charges. Though the allegation forced the FBI to open an investigation of Jordan under the special prosecutor provisions of the new Ethics in Government Act, Justice Department officials insisted the tax case would not be sacrificed for aid in the Jordan matter.” Which may or may not have been bullshit. By the way, Schrager’s attorney in the case was Mitchell Rogovin, a former special counsel to the CIA.
Rotten to the core. After a little jail time for running a cocaine distributorship to the world’s elite, Mr. Schrager went on to create unique aspirational hospitality environments which gave guests the feeling the of being part of something special. It’s hard to scale the velvet-rope-dope business, but giving people a taste of the Studio 54 magic … that proved huge. The father of the boutique hotel made his real money legitimately; by going down market and offering special places to the masses. Without him we would never have had the crappy hotel room that’s so small and dark you have to go outside to change you mind.
Now Schrager is, “deeply grateful to President Obama for this act of compassion and forgiveness. It is very humbling. I have been trying to lead a good and productive life since the mistake I made over 35 years ago.”
Social justice in the age of the elites.