Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Medium
In a move that comes after weeks of hints and trial balloons, the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton are seeking contributions of up to $1,000 to defray legal costs in the Whitewater financial investigation and Paula Jones' sex harassment suit.
``The president will be faced with potentially large legal bills, and it's in the best interest of the country and the presidency to have those bills paid,'' White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said.
``I don't think we know how much we will need. It will clearly be many times the president's salary [$200,000 a year],'' White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler said.
``No previous president ever has had to face the enormous personal legal expenses confronting President Clinton,'' said a prepared statement from the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, and former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who will serve as the fund's co-chairmen.
Members of Congress have long set up legal defense funds. House members can accept contributions of $5,000 per year from individuals, corporations or political groups. Senators can accept as much as $10,000 a year for their legal funds.
Richard Nixon also had a legal defense fund, but only after he resigned the presidency in 1974. Rabbi Baruch Korff raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Nixon deal with citizen lawsuits and his battles to block public access to his tapes and papers.
Donations to the Clinton fund will be accepted only from individuals - not from corporations, political action committees, labor unions, partnerships or other collective units, the statement said. Donations will be limited to not more than $1,000 per year.
Both limits are intended to minimize any public impression that donations might purchase improper influence from the Clinton administration, lawyers advising the president said.
Ethics groups worry that the fund opens a new avenue for funneling special-interest money into government. That concern was offset, however, by the realization that Clinton's only other option, accepting legal services at a cut rate, would leave him indebted to big law firms that do extensive lobbying.
The procedures announced Tuesday call for public disclosure of donors' names twice a year. The Clintons have hired high-priced Washington lawyers for legal battles on two fronts. The Whitewater real estate venture in Arkansas is the subject of an intense investigation, and the president has been sued for sexual harassment by former Arkansas state employee Jones.
According to some estimates, their private legal bills could top $2 million by the time both matters are resolved. That would far exceed the couple's net worth, estimated at no more than $1.6 million in their 1993 financial disclosure.
The $1,000 upper limit is so high that it will invite fat-cat contributors who want influence, say some public interest groups.
``Here's a man who received over 44 million votes in the last election,'' said Joshua Goldstein, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. ``One would think he would be able to raise enough money to cover his legal expenses in $10 chunks or $100 chunks.''
Knight-Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press provided information for this story.
by CNB