Clinton Told Coffee Guests Were Donors, Memo Says

Before President Clinton welcomed a small gathering of businessmen to an unusual coffee in the Oval Office last year, he had reason to expect that their session would enrich Democratic Party coffers.

“Mr. President . . . the five attendees of this coffee are $100,000 contributors to the DNC,” a White House aide wrote to Clinton on a briefing paper prepared for the May 1, 1996, event.

Exactly seven days later, four of the five visitors each came through with $100,000 donations to the Democratic Party, according to federal election records. Three of the donors had never given to the party before.

The circumstances surrounding the event and the subsequent donations provide the strongest correlation to date between an exclusive presidential audience at the White House and the direct payment of large sums to the Democratic National Committee.

“This is a coffee that the attorney general . . . will have to take a long, hard look at,” Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate panel investigating campaign fund-raising abuses, said Tuesday.

In scores of other White House coffees during the 1996 campaign, larger groups of Democratic supporters were ushered into the Map Room in the residential quarters, allowed to converse about current affairs with the president and asked later to support the party. Administration officials have asserted that there was no link between participation in a coffee and a donation.

But newly available documents prepared for the May 1 event show that in this case Clinton was informed in advance about the guests’ precise level of giving. The donors then were hosted in the Oval Office--usually off-limits for fund-raising events--and four of them responded later with the listed $100,000.

The location of the event, which came to light only this week with the revelation that in-house videotapes were made of 44 coffees, raises new questions for investigators about whether the White House was improperly used for political fund-raising purposes.

“What all of these pieces of information scream for is an independent investigation of exactly what happened,” said Jan Baran, a Washington attorney who specializes in election law and has represented Republicans. “What were these people told about the invitation? What did the president say and do? How did all the money get to the DNC subsequently? We don’t have answers for any of this.”

Most legal experts agree that federal law allows the president to stage political events in the family residence but prohibits the solicitation of political money on government property, including White House executive offices.

In recent months, administration officials have insisted that the series of coffees was appropriate because they took place in the residential quarters and no fund-raising pitches were made during the meetings.

On Tuesday, White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis said he could not explain why the May 1 coffee was in the Oval Office but said that the event was proper.

“There was no solicitation of funds in the Oval Office during the event . . . as far as we know,” Davis said. “If individuals committed or contributed money before or after coming to that event, that would be entirely legal.”

Last week, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno rejected a call for an independent counsel to investigate Clinton on a wide range of fund-raising allegations made by Republicans. Reno noted that the coffees occurred within the residential areas of the White House and that there was no credible evidence that Clinton solicited campaign funds at them.

Reno issued her statement Friday--one day before the White House turned over to the Justice Department videotapes of 44 of the 103 coffees.

A Justice Department spokesman said Reno’s letter made clear that the “evidence of solicitation” is the touchstone for consideration of an independent counsel. “The letter also made clear that we will continue to look at all these questions,” the spokesman said.

Indeed, federal and congressional investigators now intend to examine the videotapes for any evidence that fund-raising laws were broken.

The videotape of the May 1 coffee shows less than a minute at the start of the session. It shows Clinton greeting the group and then sitting down in a chair as his guests are seated in couches on each side of the president. The video crew then left the room.

The remarks made by Clinton and his guests are not known. But the documents obtained by The Times show that Clinton was advised in advance by a White House aide and a top DNC fund-raiser that the visitors were “new” donors who would be making substantial contributions.

On April 29, 1996, two days before the coffee, then-DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan noted that the five wealthy businessmen would attend along with three top Democratic officials and two White House aides.

“All attendees are new supporters of the DNC,” Sullivan wrote. The memo is stamped: “The President Has Seen, 5/1/96.”

On the day of the coffee, an aide in the presidential staff secretary’s office noted for Clinton the exact amount each of those attending would donate.

“MR. PRESIDENT: Per Doug, the five attendees of this coffee are $100,000 contributors to the DNC,” wrote Phil Caplan. “Doug” refers to Douglas B. Sosnik, then the White House director of political affairs.

The guests at the coffee were recruited by Barrie A. Wigmore, a limited partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co. The four others in attendance were Robert Menschel, also a Goldman Sachs limited partner; Peter Mathias, a New York-based international financial consultant; Samuel Rothberg, a Peoria, Ill., investor; and Lewis Manilow, a Chicago area real estate investor who serves as chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

One week after the coffee, Wigmore, Menschel, Mathias and Rothberg each donated $100,000. The donations by Wigmore, Mathias and Rothberg were their first to the Democratic Party, records show.

The five businessmen did not respond to repeated telephone calls.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington and researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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Coffee in the Oval Office

In a White House memo, an aide alerted President Clinton that five business executives attending a coffee in the Oval Office would each donate $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. A week later, four of the participants responded with the donations.