Clinton Releases Correspondence With Fund-Raiser
WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday released to Congress correspondence between President Clinton and John Huang showing that the former Democratic fund-raiser tried from the earliest days of the administration to get his Lippo Group bosses into the Oval Office.
Less than three weeks after Clinton was sworn in, Huang sought to arrange a meeting between Huang’s boss, Indonesian magnate Mochtar Riady, and the president. Clinton’s handwritten note in the letter’s margin said it would be “okay to spend a few minutes with him when he’s in D.C.”
At the time, Huang headed U.S. operations for Lippo, a financial conglomerate based in Jakarta. Huang is now at the center of a controversy over questionable contributions to the Democratic National Committee, where he was a top fund-raiser this year.
It took the White House about three months to grant Huang’s initial request for a meeting.
The White House released the correspondence to the House International Relations Committee.
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