
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995                   TAG: 9502220098
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JUDGE: CLINTON FUND PERSONAL

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Clinton's legal defense fund is not an advisory committee and does not have to allow public access to its records or meetings.

But in dismissing a lawsuit that raised a narrow legal question, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth noted that there are broader issues involved in a sitting president's establishing a fund to pay for his personal legal expenses.

``To the court's knowledge, there have been no other funds established by a sitting president to offset his personal legal fees and costs,'' the judge wrote. ``Clearly, there are major public policy, legal and ethical questions presented here. ... The court does not address the wisdom, ethical implications, or other legal issues attendant to creation and operation of the trust.''

On the issue raised by the lawsuit filed last August by Judicial Watch Inc., a recently formed nonprofit watchdog group, Lamberth sided with lawyers for Hillary Rodham Clinton, who helped set up the fund, and trustees of the Presidential Legal Expense Trust who argued that the fund advises the president on personal, not public policy matters. The judge said it does not fall under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires public access to groups composed of private citizens who provide advice to the president.

``Undoubtedly, personal matters may be a distraction for the president ... Nonetheless, parties who help the president deal with such matters are not thereby transmuted into an advisory committee," Lamberth wrote.

by CNB