Clintons’ Legal Bills Outpace Defense Fund

WASHINGTON — The private legal bills of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton are mounting much faster than contributions to their defense fund, threatening to saddle them with multimillion-dollar legal fees for years.

The trustees of the Presidential Legal Expense Trust, in the first accounting of the Clintons’ defense fund, disclosed Friday that they collected $608,000 from 5,865 donors from all 50 states in six months last year.

But the Clintons’ legal bills from the Whitewater and Paula Corbin Jones cases so far have swelled to more than $1.3 million and are growing at a rate of between $1 million and $2 million a year, officials of the defense fund said.

The Clintons’ financial problems are compounded by the pattern of contributions, which declined from $300,000 in July to only about $40,000 a month in October, November and December. Meanwhile, the legal bills were coming in at a rate of more than $100,000 a month, leaving an outstanding balance owed to two big law firms of $981,682.

Californians--including many prominent entertainment industry figures such as Barbra Streisand, Lew Wasserman and the late Arthur B. Krim--were the most generous contributors to the fund, sending 1,263 checks totaling $114,578.

New York was second, with 383 donors contributing $76,921. Only seven residents of Utah sent the Clintons checks, for a total of $200.

Among the well-known contributors are former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn; humorist Garrison Keillor; Washington lobbyist Michael S. Berman; liquor magnates Edgar M. Bronfman and Edgar M. Bronfman Jr.; former New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio; actor James Garner; lawyer Charles T. Manatt of Los Angeles and Washington; actor Sean Penn; Los Angeles Democratic fund-raiser Stanley K. Sheinbaum; Maurice Tempelsman, the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ companion, and producer Bud Yorkin.

The trust limits donations to $1,000 and does not take money from corporations, political action committees, unions, business partnerships, federal employees or law firms. But more than $30,000 came from Washington lawyers and lobbyists who represent clients with business before the federal government.

Last week, after calling on members of Congress to reject all gifts from lobbyists, Clinton instructed the fund to stop taking donations from registered lobbyists, although officials said that the trust would not return donations already collected from a number of Washington lobbyists.

The fund, the first of its kind for a sitting President, was established last June 28 to help Clinton defend himself from Jones’ sexual harassment suit and from the independent counsel investigation into the Whitewater banking and real estate dealings in Arkansas. The first contributions--two checks for $1,000 each--came from the Clintons themselves.

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“Whatever the merits of those proceedings, the trustees have all believed . . . that it was in the interests of all of us that the President and Mrs. Clinton, with the financial burdens from litigation of these claims, are not distracted from the other heavy burdens that the President of the United States has,” said Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, the former U.S. attorney general who serves as co-chairman of the trust.

Katzenbach dismissed questions about lobbyists’ contributions to the fund, saying that there is little distinction between a registered lobbyist and the thousands of lawyers and corporate executives who do business with the government every day.

“Are there really lobbyists in this town who think they can buy the President of the United States for $1,000?” Katzenbach asked facetiously. “If that’s true, I could buy the Congress with a credit card.”

Katzenbach noted that the trust was barred by law from soliciting funds and that no other group has come forward to try to drum up interest in paying off the Clintons’ legal bills. He said that the fund sends thank-you notes to donors but cannot use direct-mail appeals, buy advertising or in any other way try to generate contributions.

The chief expenditures of the fund:

* $150,000 to the Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly. Attorney David E. Kendall of the firm is the Clintons’ lead lawyer on Whitewater matters. The firm is still owed more than $505,000.

* $125,000 to the Washington office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which is representing Clinton in the Jones case. Lead lawyer Robert S. Bennett and his associates have billed Clinton $601,246 since the sexual harassment case was filed last May and are still owed $476,246.

* $46,134 to two Little Rock law firms, mostly for work on the Jones case and investigative expenses related to Whitewater.

* $92,122 in rent, salaries, accounting and administrative costs for the trust.

* $45,855 to the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, attorneys for the legal defense fund itself, which has been sued by two organizations who allege that the fund is an illegal government entity.

Two conservative groups, Judicial Watch Inc. and the National Legal and Policy Center, challenged the legality of the trust in a suit filed last summer.

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Kenneth F. Boehm, chairman of the center, demanded Friday that the fund return all money and disband.

“If the President and First Lady think they can stop criticism of their legal defense fund by disclosing the donors, they are mistaken,” Boehm said. “The only appropriate course of action is to close it down. . . . This slush fund is deeply resented by the American people. The First Family should pay their own legal bills.”

The trust’s lawyer, Daryl Libow of Sullivan & Cromwell, said that Boehm’s claims are “completely without merit” and that he has moved to have the groups’ lawsuit dismissed. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Feb. 13 in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Defending Clinton

* A complete list of donors to the Clinton defense fund is available on the TimesLink on-line service.

Details on Times electronic services, A5