Tapes Show a Clinton Familiar With Backers

WASHINGTON —  From softly lit dining rooms at Washington’s finest hotels to the Oval Office itself, videotapes made public Wednesday show President Clinton chatting with and at times even embracing some of the more notorious figures of the 1996 campaign.

Whether his arm is draped around the shoulder of former star fund-raiser John Huang or whether Clinton is quietly engaging Indonesian billionaire James T. Riady, the tapes dramatize a portrait of a president who appeared to well recognize the value of these and other foreign-linked backers.

Spokesmen for the White House said that the newly released videotapes--depicting about 150 events and running more than 5,900 minutes--show a president who played by the rules and who did not violate any law.

Yet the tapes are bound to raise questions for Justice Department and congressional investigators, centering on, among other things, whether Clinton had grounds to at least suspect that some of his support was coming, illegally, from foreign sources.

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In addition to Huang and Riady, the tapes show Clinton alongside such controversial supporters as Thai businesswoman Pauline Kanchanalak, Torrance businessman Johnny Chien Chuen Chung and former Little Rock, Ark., restaurateur Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie. Huang and Chung have asserted their constitutional right against self-incrimination and declined to answer investigators’ questions. Kanchanalak, Riady and Trie have evaded questioning by remaining out of the country.

The footage also will do little to quell skepticism about why the White House failed for months to disclose the videotapes in response to subpoenas from the Justice Department and two congressional committees.

Within the last several days, at least one White House lawyer, Special Counsel Lanny A. Breuer, has been questioned before a grand jury about the matter. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee this week is privately deposing Breuer and two of his colleagues.

Clearly, some of the tapes show a president at once in command of his reelection effort--and not indifferent to the desires of his backers.

“I thank you for your financial contributions,” Clinton said at a Feb. 19, 1996, dinner at the Hay-Adams Hotel, adding: “If you know some deserving person you’d like to see a part of this administration, let us know.”

The Hay-Adams dinner, the first major fund-raiser organized by Huang, raised $1.1 million--a record for a Democratic Asian American event. Less than a year later, some of that money was returned because the donations were found to have been laundered through straw donors or were otherwise questionable.

At a July 30, 1996, dinner, arranged by Huang for Riady and three other Asian businessmen, Clinton is seen praising his deployment of aircraft carriers into the Taiwan Straits after China launched unarmed ballistic missiles into the straits shortly before Taiwan’s elections.

In May 1996, Clinton addressed another intimate gathering, this one organized by Trie.

“Let me say to all of you, first how much I appreciate your being here tonight, how much I appreciate your support,” Clinton told the $5,000-a-head dinner guests at Washington’s Sheraton Carlton Hotel. “Especially, I say to the Asian American community here--and to those who have come from other countries to be with us tonight--the United States is very grateful for the people who have come from the Asian-Pacific region, who have made our country their home.”

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Clinton also referred cheerfully to Trie, whom he met two decades earlier in Little Rock.

“Soon it will be 20 years since I had my first meal with Charlie Trie,” Clinton said. “At the time, neither one of us could afford the ticket to this dinner.”

At a May 21, 1996, White House luncheon for a broader range of supporters, Clinton thanked those on hand for having contributed “generously” to the Democratic National Committee. The president said the money had helped bankroll a preemptive television advertising campaign that was vital to his reelection prospects.

“The fact that we’ve been able to finance the television campaign,” Clinton said, “is central to my standing in the polls.”

The ads Clinton referred to were paid for by the Democratic National Committee, largely with so-called “soft” political contributions that are not restricted by federal law. By law, the ads may not explicitly urge the election of a particular candidate.

“These events, all of them that are being released . . . were legal and appropriate,” said Lanny J. Davis, a White House special counsel. Of the 158 events shown in the videos, Davis said 28 occurred inside the White House. Davis said efforts are ongoing to locate any other tapes that might be responsive to the earlier-issued subpoenas.

Indeed, Clinton did not solicit contributions directly at any of the events shown to reporters summoned late Wednesday to the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. But at that same May 1996 lunch at which the president thanked donors for bankrolling the ad campaign, he warned against complacency.

“This thing could get away from us in a hurry,” Clinton said, adding a reference to his friend’s squandering of one of golf’s most prestigious tournaments: “Greg Norman couldn’t lose the Masters, either.”

Federal law prohibits soliciting donors in the White House or other government offices.

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One of the most vivid events recorded on videotape was a Sept. 10, 1994, presidential radio address in the Oval Office, attended by Huang and Riady. After meeting and greeting in rapid fashion a stream of other well-wishers at the conclusion of the radio address, Clinton spoke at length with Riady, Huang and a man whom White House officials said they were unable to immediately identify. Huang only two weeks earlier had gone to work for the Democrats after spending 18 months as an appointee of Clinton at the Commerce Department.

Riady, shown beaming in a blue open-collar shirt, also conversed one-on-one with Clinton. After Riady introduced the president to a handful of friends, Clinton enthused, clenching both fists, “I can’t wait to go to Indonesia! . . . Oh, I’m so excited, so excited.”

Clinton apparently was referring to a trip to Indonesia he would take two months later, for a Nov. 14, 1994, meeting of the Asian Pacific Economic Conference. It was in mid-1994 that Riady hired Clinton’s beleaguered friend, Webster L. Hubbell, who had just resigned as the No. 3 official at the Justice Department amid allegations that he had stolen from his former law partners and clients.

Hubbell pleaded guilty to fraud and tax-evasion charges. The deals that he won after leaving the Clinton administration are under investigation by prosecutors seeking to determine whether the arrangements were in any way intended to discourage Hubbell from providing testimony damaging to the president or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater controversy. Administration officials deny the charges.

Clinton was no more elaborate in his praise of Huang than at the February 1996 gathering for Asian supporters at the Hay-Adams. The president referred to “My good friend, John Huang,” adding: “I should have known by now, I have known John Huang a very long time. . . . He has never told me something that did not come to pass.”

At a July 22, 1996, dinner for Asian supporters at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, Clinton said: “I’d like to thank my longtime friend John Huang for being so effective . . . and for his aggressive efforts to help our cause.”

The DNC has refunded about $1.6 million of the $3.4 million in contributions raised by Huang because the money came from foreign sources, was laundered through straw donors or raised other concerns.

White House lawyers provided duplicate sets of the videotapes Tuesday night and Wednesday to the Justice Department and the separate Senate and House investigating committees. Congressional investigators indicated that they would explore details of a May 21, 1993, Democratic rally under a tent on the south lawn of the White House.

The videotape of that event shows supporter and party fund-raiser Terence R. McAuliffe telling those in attendance that it was a reward for their donations to an earlier event, scheduled for a Little Rock hotel, that had been canceled.

“We’re glad we did not ask for our checks back because, no offense to Little Rock, but this sure beats the Little Rock Excelsior,” McAuliffe said.

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Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.