Huang Visited White House Frequently, Records Show

John Huang, the Democratic Party fund raiser and former Commerce Department official responsible for soliciting several questionable contributions from Asian donors, visited the White House at least 78 times in the past two years, according to records made public Wednesday.

The records, which were obtained by a House committee from the Secret Service, showed frequent visits to the executive mansion between July 1, 1995, and Oct. 3, 1996. His visits stopped about the time that his fund-raising activities began to stir public controversy. The frequency of visits before this period could not be determined because the available Secret Service logs only went back 15 months.

Although Huang’s relationship with the Clintons was previously well known, the records clearly demonstrate that he had extensive access to the White House--more than many Commerce Department or Democratic Party employees. This access has become an issue as critics have questioned whether Huang, in soliciting large political donations from foreign nationals living in the United States, may have sought to advance their interests with U.S. officials or agencies.

Two weeks ago, White House officials acknowledged that Huang was present for two meetings with President Clinton that included James Riady, the son of Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady, Huang’s previous employer. The meetings occurred while Huang was an employee at the Commerce Department.

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Clinton and Riady have been friends since the early 1980s, when the young Indonesian businessman was sent to Little Rock, Ark., by his father to supervise the family’s holdings there in Worthen Bank.

Since becoming a Democratic fund-raiser, Huang has arranged a $425,000 donation from an Indonesian couple living in the United States who had a family business relationship to the Riady commercial empire.

On Wednesday night, White House spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn discounted the significance of Huang’s numerous visits.

“Mr. Huang was at the White House on a number of social occasions,” she explained. “He was here for some Asian American events. He was there for a bunch of other appointments.”

She said White House officials themselves were not fully aware of all of Huang’s visits. “We’re trying to re-create that ourselves right now,” she said.

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe could not explain why Huang would visit the White House more than 60 times as a party employee. Nor could Commerce Department spokeswoman Anne Luzzato account for his frequent White House visits while serving as deputy assistant secretary for international trade policy from July 1994 until last December.

In recent days as the controversy surrounding Huang has mushroomed, Commerce Department officials have said the naturalized American and native Chinese employee was confined to a strictly administrative job.

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Huang, who has shrunk from the limelight since his fund-raising activities came under scrutiny, could not be reached for comment.

Huang was suspended from his duties at the DNC shortly after the party was forced to return $250,000 he collected from a South Korean company and $20,000 in direct and in-kind donations stemming from a Buddhist temple fund-raiser in Hacienda Heights, Calif.

According to Huang’s appointment books released by the Commerce Department earlier this week, he attended several general briefings at the White House while serving in his government job. Among his contacts at the White House were Deputy Chief of Staff Harold M. Ickes and White House counselor Thomas “Mack” McLarty.

His phone messages, which were also made public, show he received 38 calls from the White House while at the Commerce Department. Huang went to the White House most frequently last February, shortly after he left the department to become the DNC’s vice chairman of its finance committee.

Another important visit occurred on July 22, when he accompanied the president to a fund-raising dinner in Los Angeles.

“It’s perfectly logical that he would have been there quite a bit,” said a White House official who declined to be identified. “He’s been a Commerce Department official. He’s a DNC fund-raiser. He’s an Asian contact for us, so he would come over for those events.”