Donor Discussed Paraguay Policy, Officials Say

Secret Service records released Thursday show that a contributor to the Democratic Party with ties to Paraguay was invited to the White House 12 times between 1994 and 1996 and the administration confirmed that he met with top U.S. officials to discuss concerns about a coup in that South American country.

The contributor, Mark Jimenez, urged the White House to try to help with Paraguay’s plight and President Clinton later called that nation’s beleaguered leader to express support when the government there plunged into a brief constitutional crisis last year. As the tension with the military eased, the Democratic National Committee received $100,000 from Jimenez.

The extraordinary access given Jimenez provides another example of the ability of Democratic donors to gain access to the president’s foreign policy apparatus on issues of importance to them.

But White House officials on Thursday vehemently denied any link between the donations from Jimenez, a wealthy Florida computer executive whose sales to Paraguay were crucial to his growing South American export market, and administration policies affecting Paraguay. The Wall Street Journal reported the series of events earlier this week.

“The suggestion that this policy and President Clinton’s support for [Paraguay’s] President Juan Carlos Wasmosy had anything to do with Mark Jimenez’s visits--much less his contribution--is totally baseless and without any shred of evidence,” said Lanny Davis, White House special counsel.

“This policy of supporting the president of Paraguay was long established,” said Davis, adding that it was the administration’s “ongoing policy to support democratic governments in Latin America, especially the first democratically elected government in Paraguay in 40 or more years.”

The tale is just the latest in a series of disclosures about political contributions that have buffeted the White House and preoccupied congressional investigators. Nor was it the only one that captured attention in the capital Thursday.

Webster L. Hubbell, a former official in the Clinton Justice Department, and John Huang, a former Democratic fund-raiser, told Congress that they planned to invoke the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and would not turn over documents subpoenaed by congressional investigators.

Two others tangled in the fund-raising controversy, Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie and Pauline Kanchanalak, also have indicated that they would not turn over certain business records sought by investigators.

Separately, NBC News reported that workers on the payroll of the Democratic National Committee were employed at the White House. Late Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles decided to shift five employees paid by the committee to the White House payroll after Clinton ordered a review of the practice. The employees work for the vice president as well as in the public liaison and schedule and advance offices.

“This revelation is deeply troubling and extremely serious,” Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.) said of the payroll report in a letter to White House Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff. “Apart from the obvious legal concerns about the use of political funds to augment official government activity, it clearly suggests that the DNC had inappropriate and perhaps illegal access” to a White House database that is legally off-limits to party officials.

The question of Jimenez and U.S. policy on Paraguay centers on the link between large donations and special access and influence allowed those who make them. Jimenez actually has contributed more than $100,000 to the Democrats, although the amount and dates of the other donations were not immediately available. The White House suggested Thursday that the total amount will reach several hundred thousand dollars.

According to records released Thursday, Jimenez apparently visited the White House 12 times over the last few years. The majority of visits were social and political gatherings, such as two Democratic Party dinners in 1995, along with a holiday reception and Arkansas Lawn Concert.

But some of the meetings were with Thomas “Mack” McLarty, Clinton’s former chief of staff who was traveling extensively through Latin America and subsequently has been named a special envoy to the region.

McLarty often met with business executives and others who had insight into political and economic issues in Latin America. After about 15 minutes of one such meeting in early 1996, when Jimenez sought to discuss an escalating constitutional crisis involving the military in Paraguay, McLarty broke up the meeting, saying that he wanted specialists in attendance, according to a White House account on Thursday.

McLarty and Jimenez next met in early April, along with two representatives from the State Department and an official of the National Security Council. A week later, Jimenez returned with Paraguay’s ambassador to the United States.

“I saved democracy in Paraguay,” Jimenez was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article.

But White House officials maintained that the fragile state of the government was no secret and that they were unaware of the $100,000 donation.

Said one: “This guy’s taking credit, perhaps for his own purposes--and that’s unseemly.”