White House defends RI's ties to Clinton
White House defends RI's ties to Clinton
WASHINGTON (Reuter): The White House on Friday defended the propriety of President Bill Clinton's ties to a wealthy Indonesian family that has made big contributions to the Democratic Party and Clinton's inaugural committee.
Several U.S. news organisations have raised questions about the United States business operations of the billionaire Riady family, its connections with the Clinton administration and its contributions to Clinton's political causes.
But White House spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters at his daily news briefing that suggestions that the family's support of Clinton was improper bordered on an ethnic slur.
"This family is a prominent family in Little Rock. One of the members of the family lived there for some time and had extensive commercial dealings in the city itself. They got to know people within the community," McCurry said.
No surprise
McCurry said James Riady, a 39-year-old businessman who lives in Jakarta, got to know Clinton when he was Arkansas governor "and the fact that they became friendly and are among his supporters should come as no surprise."
The New York Times reported on Friday that Riady and his wife gave at least $175,000 to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Inaugural Committee. Federal records show they were legal immigrants living in the United States at the time.
U.S. election laws allow foreigers to contribute to political parties as long as they are legally residing in this country.
The Times quoted family associates as saying that their financial support helped the Riady family place the former head of their U.S. business operations, an American citizen, in an influential trade job in the Clinton administration.
Questions have also arisen about the Riady's hiring of former associate Attorney General Webb Hubbell, a one-time Arkansas law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a paid consultant after he resigned from the Justice Department.
Hubbell, now serving time in jail on charges of bilking his former law partners and clients, testified before the Senate that he was on retainer for a Riady affiliate until he pleaded guilty to two felony counts in late 1994.
The Times also wrote that in 1994, at a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, that including China's Jiang Zemin, President Clinton surprised U.S. Embassy officials by holding a private meeting with James Riady. "This duly impressed Asian leaders who put great weight on connections in high places.
"Clinton's foreign contributors are coming through for him in this campaign. Does Hubbell.. expect to be sprung before his time? Will he then be made financially whole by the Clinton Asian connection?" the daily wrote further.