Nsc Told Clinton, Gore About Donors Documents Released To Bolster Cia Nominee Show White House Ignored Warnings About Links To Foreign Interests

New documents released on Friday revealed that national security advisers waved warning flags about the Clinton administration’s contacts with Asian-American campaign contributors.

However, those admonitions were only partially heeded, as the political operatives pressed for favors and attention at the Clinton White House.

The stack of internal memos, letters and meeting records was made public Friday to bolster the case for confirming Anthony Lake, the president’s nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Senate critics have expressed doubts about Lake, partly because he was Clinton’s national security adviser at a time when the White House opened its doors to several questionable figures.

The documents demonstrate that Lake and his staff peppered the Clinton White House with cautionary memos.

However, the new revelations also raise questions about why the president, his staff and the Democratic National Committee continued to keep close links to the individuals. And they indicate that Vice President Gore’s staff knew in advance that an event in a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser.

In April 1995, the documents show, the White House permitted a Democratic fundraiser, California businessman John Chung, to bring six men with him to watch Clinton tape his weekly radio address in the Oval Office. Only later was the national security team queried about the group, who turned out to be current and past Chinese government officials.

When Chung pressed for photographs of the session, the White House flinched. Robert L. Suettinger, an Asia policy expert for the National Security Council, wrote his suspicions in a computerized memo.

“I don’t see any lasting damage to U.S. foreign policy from giving Johnny Chung the pictures. And to the degree it motivates him to continue contributing to the DNC (Democratic National Committee), who am I to complain?”

But Suettinger went on to caution against encouraging Chung to use his White House ties: “My impression is that he’s a hustler, and appears to be involved in setting up some kind of consulting operation that will thrive by bringing Chinese entrepreneurs into town for exposure to high-level U.S. officials.”

The photos were not sent to Chung, White House press secretary Michael McCurry told reporters. He added that Chung was no longer welcome at the White House as part of an overall tightening of standards for access to the president.

At the DNC, spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said that Chung had been a “management trustee” for the party, a designation reserved for those who gave $100,000 or more, until that group was disbanded in the spring of 1995.

On the vice president’s controversial visit to a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles last April, Gore staff member John J. Norris wrote beforehand that Gore would visit the temple and attend “a fund-raising lunch for about 150 people.”

Gore has said that he went to the temple event without knowing it was a political fund-raiser, although he later acknowledged that some of his aides knew.

The documents reveal that the Gore staff’s chief worry was about the possible foreign relations implications of meeting with a religious group with ties to Taiwan.

“I guess my reaction would be one of great, great caution,” Suettinger, an NSC Asian policy expert advised the Gore staff.

Gore spokeswoman Lorraine Voles said the vice president’s office contacted the U.S. State Department for more guidance and decided to go forward with the luncheon after there were “no objections” on foreign policy grounds.