Trie Visited White House Last Week Once-Spurned Clinton Donor Was Dinner Guest On Friday
Charles Yah Lin Trie, the Arkansas businessman whose fund-raising efforts were rejected by President Clinton’s legal defense fund earlier this year, continued to be a visitor to the White House long after presidential aides began raising questions about money he had given to the fund and to the Democratic Party.
Trie attended a White House dinner last Friday and spoke briefly with Clinton on a receiving line about issues “of a personal nature,” Michael McCurry, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday.
The White House was at a loss to explain exactly why Trie was invited last Friday, after Clinton had repeatedly declared his intention to make campaign finance reform a central part of the agenda of his second administration.
Nor was it clear how the White House came to permit Trie to visit at a time when Washington is preparing for a series of congressional and Justice Department investigations into questionable fund-raising practices, particularly by the Democrats.
McCurry sought to distance the White House from the decision to invite Trie to the executive mansion, saying that the invitation list had been compiled by the Democratic National Committee.
He and other administration officials would not say who at the White House approved the list of 250 people who came to the dinner. They would not say how many times Trie had been at the White House or whom he had seen, saying they were still checking records.
The legal defense fund was set up to help the president and first lady pay their growing legal bills from the Whitewater investigation. Officials at the fund said Monday that in June, the Clintons approved a decision to reject more than $639,000 in contributions that had been solicited by Trie (pronounced TREE) because private investigators had been unable to verify the sources of the money.
According to people close to the fund, the investigators actually told the trust’s administrators that they had evidence that the true sources of the money may have been deliberately concealed.
Clinton announced the appointment of Trie earlier this year to an advisory panel on Asian trade after signing an executive order to expand the group’s membership to make room for political appointees.
The White House has said there was no connection between Trie’s fund-raising efforts and his appointment to the trade panel.
The president said Tuesday that he supported the defense fund’s decision to return the money and that he had been a friend of Trie’s for many years.
“I’ve known him a long time,” Clinton said at a photo session in the Oval Office.
“I knew him when he and his family came over and started a little restaurant about a mile from my home 20 years ago. And I saw them start with nothing and build up their family enterprise. They’ve worked very hard in this country, and they’ve done well.”
The Justice Department has set up a separate investigations unit to examine the fund-raising activities of the Democratic National Committee.
In recent weeks, the DNC has also been reviewing more than $100,000 Trie raised and contributed to the party, as part of a larger review of questionable campaign donations.
xxxx QUID PRO QUO? Clinton announced the appointment of Trie earlier this year to an advisory panel on Asian trade after signing an executive order to expand the group’s membership to make room for political appointees.