Top Clinton Aide Knew Of Lippo Hire In 1994

Bruce Lindsey, President Clinton’s closest adviser, knew in 1994 that an Indonesian company had hired Clinton’s disgraced friend Webster Hubbell - long before the company emerged at the center of the Democratic fund-raising controversy.

Lindsey’s statement, contained in a June 1996 Senate deposition stored away at the National Archives, contradicts the account White House press secretary Mike McCurry gave just last month.

McCurry told reporters in December that Lindsey and other presidential aides did not learn about the Lippo Group’s hiring of Hubbell until press accounts last year. “They reported being surprised,” he said at the time.

Asked by The Associated Press about the conflicting deposition, the White House on Wednesday altered - for a third time in recent weeks - its public account of events in the controversy over Asian-linked donors to the Democratic Party.

White House spokesman Lanny Davis said Lindsey’s testimony was accurate and that McCurry’s explanation was wrong. He blamed miscommunication between Lindsey, a White House lawyer and McCurry.