Scrutiny of Fund-Raising Falls on Civil Rights Figure

To those who have seen “The Ernest Green Story” on television’s Disney Channel, he is a heroic figure--the remarkably courageous young man who helped integrate Little Rock’s Central High School in the mid-1950s.

But to Justice Department and congressional investigators probing Democratic fund-raising practices, Ernest G. Green is viewed as an increasingly important link in alleged efforts by China to influence President Clinton.

A friend and favorite companion of the president, Green, now a managing director of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in Washington, was a major player in the full-court press to raise funds for Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign, one of the top 10 fund-raisers as of early 1995, according to a recently disclosed campaign memo.

But none of the donations raised by Green has proved as important to investigators as a $50,000 contribution made by his wife, Phyllis, on Feb. 7, 1996.

If, as congressional investigators suspect, the contribution is connected to a White House visit the previous day by Chinese investment banker and arms dealer Wang Jun, it would compound fears that some questionable donations to Clinton reflected an effort by the Chinese government to influence U.S. policy.

Fueling the investigators’ suspicions are two pieces of circumstantial evidence. Not only did Green play a part in bringing Wang to the United States, but neither he nor his wife had ever made a donation even approaching $50,000.

Thus congressional investigators suspect the true source of the money was not Phyllis Green but Wang, who as a foreigner is not allowed to contribute to American political campaigns.

Green, who had met Wang in China because both worked for investment banking concerns, refused to comment on the allegations that he acted as a go-between for the Chinese. The Greens’ lawyer, James M. Christian, acknowledged that Green was under investigation by the FBI and committees of Congress.

At the same time, Christian said, Green--whom he describes as “Mr. Clean”--has done nothing wrong. He said Green intended to answer the allegations fully under oath.

It is Green’s clean image that makes the allegations so surprising. As one of the black youngsters who integrated Central High School after the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, he has been honored many times as a civil rights pioneer.

Green was working in the Carter administration’s Labor Department in the late 1970s when he met Clinton, then an aspiring Arkansas politician. The two became friends and, ever since, Green has been a Clinton confidant and fund-raiser.

It was Green’s fund-raising abilities--not his personal contributions--that earned him membership in the Democratic Party’s Managing Trustees club for $100,000 donors. It also earned him an invitation to join at least one of former Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown’s foreign trade missions during the early years of the Clinton administration.

Just last year, according to Christian, Green hosted a single party that raised $1 million for the president’s reelection.

Records of Green’s personal contributions, however, show that before the $50,000 contribution in February 1996, he had made relatively small donations of $3,700 in 1994 and $250 in 1995. His wife had contributed nothing.

It is not known how Green first met Wang, although both represented investment banks. Investigators have obtained a copy of a letter Green wrote to Wang on Nov. 6, 1995, referring to a meeting between them in Hong Kong the previous month.

“I enjoyed our discussions and feel there are many business opportunities we may pursue,” Green told Wang, who heads the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITI), an investment firm with close ties to the Beijing government.

In the letter, Green invited Wang to visit the United States and promised to “arrange for you to meet some of my business colleagues, so that we may discuss these opportunities in greater detail.”

When Green met Wang in Hong Kong, he was visiting Asia in the company of Brown, who had just completed a trade mission to Beijing.

While in Hong Kong, Green and Brown attended a dinner party with a number of wealthy Asian businessmen and another Arkansan, Yah Ling “Charlie” Trie. After the dinner party, several Asian guests complained that they were contacted by Trie, who asked them to contribute to the Democratic Party.

At least one guest said Green also solicited business for himself and advised other guests not to tell anyone about the party.

Investigators believe that Wang also may have been among the party guests. In addition, they are asking if Green’s desire to keep the dinner quiet indicated that he knew the purpose of the gathering was to raise political contributions from foreign sources, who are prohibited from contributing to U.S. candidates.

The investigation of Democratic Party contributions began with allegations that some of the biggest donations may have come indirectly from illegal foreign sources. Investigators suspect China was the source of some of these donations, but they have no proof.

When Wang applied for a visa to enter the United States in January 1996, he submitted with his application two letters: the letter of invitation written by Green the previous November and a similar letter written by Trie in January.

Trie’s letter indicates that Trie and Green were working together in their efforts to attract Wang into a business deal with them. The nature of the proposed deal was not specified. He wrote that he wanted Wang, while in the United States, to meet with “Ernest Green and my other business contacts to discuss the possibility of business endeavors.”

Trie and Green apparently knew each other from Little Rock, where Trie operated a Chinese restaurant before going into the business of promoting international trade. Like Green, Trie is a personal friend of the president.

While he was in the United States, Wang went to the White House in the company of Trie to attend a political “coffee” with Clinton on Feb. 6. When Wang’s visit to the White House was disclosed recently, it caused embarrassment for Clinton.

White House officials said they knew at the time of Wang’s visit that he headed CITI. But they were unaware that he also held an executive position at Poly Technologies Inc., a Chinese arms company that at the time was under investigation by the U.S. Customs Service for smuggling.

Green did not attend the Feb. 6 coffee with Wang and Trie, according to White House records, although he was a guest at other such coffees, which Clinton used to entertain potential political donors.

Christian insisted there was no connection between’s Wang’s visit to the White House and the Feb. 7 $50,000 contribution from Green’s wife, but investigators noted the donation did not fit with the pattern of giving previously established by Green and his wife.

Investigators said they were anxious to question Green about his relationship with Wang because they believe the Chinese pursued this connection in an effort to win favor with Clinton.

* PRESSURE FOR COUNSEL: Republicans boost pressure for an independent counsel. A13