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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

White House Releases New Details Documents Visits By Indonesian Banker, Fund-Raiser Huang

Associated Press

A member of a wealthy Indonesian family at the center of a Democratic Party fund-raising controversy visited the White House 20 times, including six in which he met with President Clinton, the White House said Saturday.

James Riady’s visits were documented in records made available in response to questions about the president’s contacts with fund-raiser John Huang, the billionaire Riady family and an international consultant.

The disclosures from a White House review of security records came after Clinton told a newspaper that the Democratic National Committee erred in sending fund-raiser Huang to Taiwan to raise money for the 1996 campaign season.

Huang, a former Commerce Department official, has been a principal figure in the controversy over foreign-linked political donations. Before joining the government, he worked for the Riadys’ Lippo banking and real estate conglomerate in Indonesia.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Saturday the new information was released 10 days after the elections because it took time to sort them out. “There were numerous discrepancies in these records,” McCurry said. “We didn’t want to provide half-information or incorrect information.”

McCurry insisted in an interview that Riady, a friend of Clinton whose family’s contributions to the president’s campaign are a focus of the foreign money controversy, never influenced policy decisions about Indonesia and China - even though he and Clinton twice discussed policy questions.

As for Huang’s White House visits while heading Lippo’s U.S. affiliate, McCurry said, “Nothing suggests he was there for anything other than to accompany his employer,” Riady, to receptions and other social events. As a Commerce Department official after July 1994, Huang attended a “handful” of meetings touching on economic policy or trade issues, said McCurry.

Altogether Huang made 94 visits, including 15 meetings with Clinton and others, according to the review of security logs. Roughly half those meetings were Democratic National Committee social events, at which contributors may have been present.

Earlier this week, DNC Chairman Donald Fowler acknowledged that Huang had discussed fund-raising during some of his visits to the White House this year.

The White House made the security review information available to The Associated Press and other news organizations in response to queries but is reserving the documents for use by congressional investigators.

Both those investigators and the Commerce Department’s inspector general are examining Huang’s activities during the 18 months he worked in the government.

The new White House review also turned up 65 visits by Mark Middleton, a former presidential aide now an international business consultant. McCurry acknowledged Friday that Middleton improperly used a private White House restaurant and may have brought clients there. Middleton denied any wrongdoing.

McCurry said the White House was concerned about Middleton’s use of the White House mess, which is not open to the public, after he left the administration in February 1995. The press secretary said Saturday that such unofficial use of the facility has been “fairly commonplace” but that a rule against it is now being enforced.