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More Questions About Clinton Fund-Raising

Notes suggest an active telephone effort

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 27, 1997) -- The scope of Democratic fund-raising questions continues to widen, with new evidence suggesting that President Bill Clinton may have made telephone calls soliciting donations from his office in the White House.

Investigators have obtained handwritten notes from White House aide David Strauss that say Clinton raised $500,000 from calls he made.

In excerpts of the 1994 notes, Strauss refers to calls made by Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. "BC made 15 to 20 calls, raised 500K," "HRC making calls", and "Request for more VP calls," read the notes.

In addition, the White House has given Congress a note handwritten by Clinton on a February 1996 memo from presidential aide Harold Ickes. The memo forwarded the names of 10 major corporate donors the president could call to seek contributions. Clinton appeared to make notes on the memo to Ickes, telling him that two of the donors had already made contributions and asking which of the others had given and a good time to call them.

Officials say that the list of donors was forwarded to the White House from the Democratic Party. Included on the list were executives from Occidental Petroleum, Anheuser-Busch and Slim Fast Foods.

Occidental Petroleum gave $15,000 to the Democrats' congressional committee in March 1996 and a few weeks later, on March 29, 1996, it gave $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Howard Collins, Occidental's vice president of public relations, told The Associated Press that they never received a phone call from Clinton requesting donations and that the company has given to political parties in the past.

Records also show that Anheuser-Busch contributed $33,000 to the Democrats' congressional fund-raising committees in March 1996 and another $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee in April 1996. A representative for the company was not available for comment.

Clinton has stated that he does not recall making phone calls in March 1996, although he does remember being asked to do so once. "I just never got around to doing it," the president said. However, he does not deny all allegations that he did make phone calls at other times from the White House.

Since revelations surfaced last year that Gore made fund-raising phone calls from the White House, Clinton has stood by his contention that he does not recall soliciting money over the phone, although he cannot rule out the possibility.

"The president has stated that he cannot say that out of the hundreds and hundreds of calls he made to supporters that he never asked for financial support," said White House special counsel Lanny Davis. "He said that he cannot recall specifically asking for contributions during these calls, though he may well have."

Federal law prohibits government officials from making phone calls soliciting campaign donations from a government building or on government property. Any phone calls from inside the executive mansion could thus be considered illegal.

The White House has defended its position stating that Clinton's actions were not improper, but a normal part of politics.





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