Inaugural Committee Says No To Overseas Money - Dec. 6, 1996
Justice Rejects Request For DNC Independent Counsel - Nov. 29, 1996
DNC Returns $450,000 Donated By Asian Couple - Nov. 23, 1996
In Focus: The DNC Fund-Raising Flap
Huang Wanted Clinton-Riady
Meeting In Early 1993
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 11) -- Less than three weeks after Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, then-Democratic fund-raiser John Huang contacted the White House, pushing for a meeting between Clinton and Huang's Lippo Group boss, Mochtar Riady.
Documents released by the White House to Congress this week show Huang wrote the White House in February 1993, hoping to arrange a session between Clinton and Riady.
The letter has a handwritten note from Clinton in the margin, saying it would be "okay to spend a few minutes with him when he's in D.C."
Huang stands at the center of this fall's flap over aggressive Democratic Party fund-raising, including contributions from overseas business interests. Huang's activities are being probed by the Justice Department and several congressional committees.
Some Republicans question whether Clinton let members of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group lobby him on trade issues and other questions, in exchange for political contributions. Clinton has said they had no undue influence on U.S. policy in Asia.
The White House earlier said Lippo executive James Riady met with Clinton in the Oval Office, but the correspondence brought to light Huang's interest in setting up Lippo-Clinton meetings.
Huang also wrote to the White House in June 1993, seeking another meeting between Clinton and Riady family members, and later meetings occurred in 1995 and 1996.
In a related development, an ABC News survey shows a clear majority of Americans supports appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the DNC's fund-raising activities.
About 60 percent of people surveyed said the campaign finance flap requires a full-scale federal investigation and 56 percent felt a special counsel, rather than the Justice Department, should do the probe.
The Justice Department last month turned down a request from five GOP lawmakers for a special counsel.
ABC's telephone survey was conducted Monday; the survey had a sample of 500 adults and has a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The results were broadcast on ABC's "Nightline."