White House Urged Huang for Role at DNC, Witness Says

Tying the White House more closely to the campaign donations scandal, the Democratic Party’s former finance director testified on Wednesday that key aides to President Clinton helped install the central figure in the controversy, John Huang, as a top party fund-raiser.

Clinton, attending a NATO summit in Madrid, acknowledged that he may have played a role in Huang’s hiring by the Democratic National Committee--a fateful decision that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in tainted contributions.

Clinton told reporters that at some point in 1995, Huang--then a Commerce Department official--”expressed an interest in going to work to help raise money for the Democratic Party, and I think I may have said to someone that he wanted to go to work at the DNC. I do believe I did say that to someone.”

The president added: “And I wish I could tell you more. That’s all I know about it.”

The president’s comments, coupled with the testimony to the Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee by Richard Sullivan, the former DNC finance director, would seem to complicate the White House’s efforts to distance itself from fund-raising abuses that are the focus of the panel’s hearings, as well as a Justice Department investigation.

Democrats on the committee, however, argued that Sullivan had not provided any particularly damaging information about their party’s fund-raising practices. And Sullivan, who oversaw DNC efforts that raised a record $187 million in total contributions during the 1995-96 election cycle, stressed that he witnessed no wrongdoing.

“That is, I was never--and I emphasize never--confronted at the time with any evidence or suggestion of willful misconduct,” Sullivan told the committee as its lead witness.

The 33-year-old Sullivan added: “The vast, vast majority of the money we raised complied in letter and in spirit with every legal, regulatory and, indeed, ethical requirement of fund-raising.”

Reno Opposes Immunity for Huang

As Wednesday’s session ended, committee chairman Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) announced that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is opposed to a surprise suggestion made at the hearing’s opening on Tuesday that Huang would be willing to testify if granted limited immunity. Until then, Huang had indicated he would invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called before the committee.

A Justice Department official said the department’s position was conveyed “at the staff level” that congressional immunity “is not appropriate for someone like Huang,” who could face charges stemming from the department’s fund-raising probe.

The immunity issue, however, is still under discussion by the committee. The committee--by a two-thirds vote of its 16 members--still could decide to go ahead with the immunity grant, regardless of Reno’s opposition.

Although Sullivan continues his testimony today, some Republicans were left disappointed that on Wednesday, he was not nearly as outspoken or critical of Democratic fund-raising practices as he had been earlier during hours of private depositions. One GOP committee staffer had been overheard promoting Sullivan in advance as “our John Dean,” a reference to the former Nixon administration official whose damning disclosures of a White House cover-up was a climactic moment of the Watergate hearings. But so far, Sullivan has not justified that billing.

Sullivan, for instance, resisted efforts by Republican committee members to characterize controversial White House coffees that Clinton hosted for Democratic contributors as clearly designed to extract donations. Sullivan termed the gatherings useful tools to “energize” potential contributors, but insisted they were not actual fund-raisers.

Sen. Domenici Voices Exasperation

When Sullivan continued making that case despite DNC documents showing that from among those who attended a single coffee in January 1996, the party ultimately received $400,000 in donations, Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) clearly was exasperated.

“For the first time, I really believe you are spewing words to confuse things,” Domenici said.

For the most part, Republicans used their questioning to suggest the White House foisted Huang--an acquaintance of Clinton’s since the mid-1980s and a onetime employee of the Lippo Group, an Indonesian-based financial conglomerate--upon the DNC.

According to Sullivan, the effort on Huang’s behalf began to unfold in the summer of 1995, when C. Joseph Giroir Jr., a former law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton and an attorney for the Riady family--which controls the Lippo Group--approached then-DNC Chairman Don Fowler. Sullivan said Giroir suggested that Huang be hired as a fund-raiser.

Sullivan said former White House aide Mark Middleton also mentioned that Huang was interested in joining the DNC. But he said it was two phone calls from Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Harold M. Ickes, that caused his boss, DNC finance chairman Marvin Rosen, to act.

“My sense of it at the time was that Harold had called Marvin twice over a period of couple of weeks, and that is when Marvin acted on it,” Sullivan said.

Under questioning from Thompson, Sullivan said that he also remembered that Rosen--after Clinton was reelected last year--mentioned that at some point, apparently in 1995, the president had asked him if he had heard that Huang was interested in coming to the DNC.

Sullivan did acknowledge that he was concerned enough about Huang’s lack of fund-raising experience that he warned him about adhering to federal election laws and insisted he be instructed by a lawyer about prohibitions against accepting money from foreigners.

“I was concerned that John knew the rule,” Sullivan testified.

Democrats Return Much Raised by Huang

The party has returned nearly half of the $3.4 million Huang raised as the Democrats’ chief fund-raiser among Asian Americans because of concerns that the money came from improper sources.

Citing one event that has proved especially embarrassing for the Democrats, Sullivan testified that he warned Huang that it would be improper to stage a fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights.

Sullivan said he was assured by Huang that no one would be required to make a contribution to attend the April 1996 event. Huang gave the same message to a top aide to Vice President Al Gore, Sullivan said.

“He knew it was not proper to hold a formal fund-raising event at a religious institution,” Sullivan said.

In the end, however, the luncheon attended by Gore was a fund-raiser. It raised $140,000, some of which was donated that day. Sullivan testified that Gore did not know when he attended the event that checks were collected at the temple.

Sullivan was asked why he thought Huang was willing to leave his $118,000-a-year post at Commerce for a job that paid half that much.

“John stated that he was extremely interested in working in both politics and fund-raising with the Asian American community,” Sullivan told the committee.

Democrats Suggest Testimony Old News

Democrats suggested his testimony was old news, and they made much of Sullivan’s statement that he never witnessed any party official discuss seeking illegal contributions.

In a typical comment, Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), said, “If Mr. Sullivan is the lead witness [and has] absolutely no knowledge of foreign contributions, the final witness will be unable to find China on a map.”

Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) noted as of now, only 172 of the 2.7 million individual contributions received by the DNC in 1995 and 1996 have been returned for being illegal, questionable or lacking sufficient information about their origin.

“I would say that’s a pretty good record,” Glenn said.

Times staff writers Glenn Bunting, Ronald J. Ostrow and Edwin Chen in Washington, Jonathan Peterson in Madrid and researcher Janet Lundblad in Washington contributed to this story.

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Hearings in a Snapshot

* Today’s witness: Richard Sullivan, former DNC finance director, continues to testify.

* Issue: Fund-raising operations at the Democratic National Committee.

* Wednesday: Republicans questioned Sullivan on efforts by White House officials and possibly the president himself to convince DNC finance chairman Marvin Rosen and party chairman Don Fowler to hire John Huang.

* Other fronts: President Clinton, attending a NATO summit in Madrid, acknowledged that he may have played a role in Huang’s hiring, but doesn’t remember who he spoke to.

* Other developments: Attorney General Janet Reno has recommended against granting limited immunity to John Huang.

TV: C-SPAN will re-air the day’s hearing in their entirety at 7 p.m. PDT

Next week: Today’s hearing is the last until Tuesday. The witness list was unavailable. Researched by D’JAMILA SALEM FITZGERALD / Los Angeles Times