Ex-Clinton Aide Rebuts Donation Allegations

WASHINGTON —  Harold M. Ickes, who coordinated White House efforts in President Clinton’s reelection campaign, denied suggestions from the chairman of the Senate’s fund-raising investigation Wednesday that the Clinton administration was involved in an alleged criminal conspiracy involving illegal union contributions.

Ickes was joined by White House Special Counsel Lanny J. Davis in rebutting a statement by Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) that Clinton met in June 1996 with three people who have been implicated in a scheme to divert union funds to last year’s reelection campaign of Teamsters President Ron Carey.

Hours later, Thompson announced that he had received additional information from the White House confirming that Clinton had not met privately with the three. He apologized for leaving “the wrong impression” that a private meeting with Clinton had occurred.

“I should have taken a little more time to explore some of these avenues before I left that implication,” he said.

“But the question still remains why they were there, what they were talking about, what sidebars they may have had,” Thompson added. “We will pursue this and we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

In more than seven hours of feisty testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Ickes gave better than he got in taking on Republicans who had waited weeks to interrogate him.

“Let the games begin,” Ickes confidently told reporters before the questioning started. Ickes, now a Washington consultant, had given an opening statement Tuesday.

The sharp tone of his interrogation was established early by Thompson, who suggested that Clinton was linked to an election-finance scheme that called for Democratic fund-raisers to line up wealthy donors to Carey’s campaign in exchange for political contributions to the Democratic Party from the union itself.

One of three Carey campaign aides who last month pleaded guilty to federal charges in the scheme was direct-mail specialist Martin Davis. Court papers said that two others who took part in the transaction, but who have not been accused of wrongdoing themselves, were Terry McAuliffe, finance chairman of the Clinton-Gore campaign, and Laura Hartigan, the Clinton-Gore finance director.

Thompson told Ickes that White House entry logs showed that Davis, McAuliffe and Hartigan met with Clinton on June 17, 1996, four days before prosecutors have said the scheme was hatched.

Asked if he had attended such a meeting or any session where Teamster money was discussed, Ickes replied: “Not to my recollection.” He often used the same phrase in answering other questions from committee members.

Thompson said that on June 21, 1996, the Teamsters “decided they would send $235,000 to various state Democratic parties.” Ickes responded that “I don’t think I’ve ever met Martin Davis” but that he had met “on many occasions” with McAuliffe and Hartigan because of their involvement in Clinton’s reelection.

“I know nothing about this conspiracy you refer to,” Ickes added.

Lanny J. Davis, representing the White House, told reporters during a noontime break that Martin Davis, McAuliffe and Hartigan were among 400 people who attended a Democratic National Committee-sponsored luncheon at the White House on June 17. But the three had not met privately with Clinton, he said.

On the subject of specific fund-raising practices that are being investigated by the Justice Department and two congressional committees, Ickes remained defiant and unrepentant. He raised the hackles of Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) by claiming that controversial White House political activities were pioneered by the Reagan and Bush administrations.

He turned aside all suggestions that Clinton fund-raising techniques were illegal or even improper, saying that Senate reformers should “change the rules” if they are unhappy.

Ickes denied that much-criticized White House coffees were fund-raisers, conceding only that “these coffees were to facilitate fund-raising.” And he insisted that there had been no Democratic intention to solicit illegal foreign money, blaming misdeeds on an unidentified “minuscule handful of people who may have violated the law.”

In response to repeated questions about the use of White House coffees, White House telephone solicitation and other techniques to raise unregulated “soft-money” donations, Ickes firmly maintained that all these activities were proper. But he said he strongly favors some type of campaign reform.

“The rules have to be made clear,” he said. “The rules are not clear now.”

Domenici took “great exception” to a statement by Ickes that political activities at the White House began under Reagan and Bush, who established formal “political affairs” offices.

Domenici said Reagan had never hosted coffees to raise millions of dollars in campaign cash. Ickes retorted that “we inherited a system that was basically established by [Reagan political aides] Lyn Nofziger and Ed Rollins and [Bush operative] Lee Atwater.”

Ickes said he wonders how many fund-raising controversies a Democratic Congress might have discovered in the Reagan and Bush administrations if it had the resources of the Thompson committee.

“Give me $4.5 million and 100 skilled investigators,” he said. “I’d like to go through the Reagan White House and the Bush White House and see what they did.”

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) told Ickes that Ickes had made efforts “to get around campaign limits” by using White House events and Democratic soft money for election-year television ads.

“I was very much involved,” Ickes acknowledged. “But decisions like that were made with a lot of advice from other lawyers. We did what the law permitted.”

* FORMIDABLE FOE: Acid-tongued Ickes proves to be a tough case for GOP. A20

* HOUSE OPENS PROBE: Committee promises testimony on 1992 Clinton campaign. A20

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Harold M. Ickes

Born: Sept. 4, 1939

Education: Graduated from Stanford University, 1964; Columbia University Law School, 1971.

Career highlights: Throughout the 1970s, he worked on various state and national campaigns, including Morris K. Udall’s 1976 presidential bid. Joined the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C. in 1978. In 1989, he was special counsel to the Democratic National Committee. He managed Bill Clinton’s New York presidential campaign and was manager of the Democratic National Convention in July 1992. Clinton named him deputy director of the Clinton-Gore presidential transition team in 1992. He served as deputy White House chief of staff from January 1994 to January 1997.

Personal: Married to Laura Rose Handman; has one daughter.