E-Mail Raises Questions About Gore Fund-Raising

The White House on Friday sent congressional investigators copies of hundreds of e-mail messages from Vice President Al Gore’s office that dealt with campaign fund-raising but previously had been lost because of a computer breakdown.

As reconstructed from computer backup tapes, some messages suggested that Gore’s staff considered a controversial Buddhist temple event in 1996 to be a Democratic fund-raiser. Gore has contended he was not told that was the purpose.

“Currently, we are committed in San Jose and L.A. for fund-raising events,” one staff e-mail said of an April 1996 trip that included a luncheon at the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights.

Gore’s appearance at the temple, surrounded by saffron-robed nuns and monks, became symbolic of the Democratic fund-raising scandal that was the subject of Senate hearings and criminal prosecutions by the government.

When it was disclosed that the temple gathering had raised more than $100,000, much of it in foreign-tainted donations, Gore first said he believed it had been a “community outreach” event. Later, however, he acknowledged that he knew it was “finance related.”

Jim Kennedy, the vice president’s spokesman, said Friday that there is “nothing significant” in the reconstructed e-mails, many of which dealt with material in memos given to investigators.

But Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said the White House had repeatedly “obstructed” his investigation of Democratic fund-raising abuses. “Now, 3 1/2 years after this evidence was subpoenaed, we are beginning to receive these e-mails,” he said in a statement.

One e-mail dealt with a Taiwanese American businessman in Virginia who offered to contribute $250,000 if he could visit with President Clinton. But Kennedy said a memo disclosed it was given to Senate investigators three years ago. The donation was never made.

Hearings earlier this year by the House Government Reform Committee showed that many e-mails from 1996, the period when Democrats were collecting millions of dollars from suspicious sources, had not been properly archived and were not turned over to Congress. The White House has since been reconstructing them.

The Democratic National Committee eventually returned $3 million to 1996 donors after determining that the funds had originated from abroad. Foreign donations to U.S. political campaigns are illegal.

In another newly disclosed e-mail, a staff member said, “The VP will need to have some cash on hand . . . to offer as an offering at the Buddhist temple.” An amount of $20 was suggested, which a White House official said Friday might have led Gore to believe it was only a religious visit because “you wouldn’t be carrying money to your own fund-raiser.” The official could not say whether Gore made an offering at the temple.