PRESIDENT Clinton has become embroiled in a new controversy over fund-raising, this time to help pay the legal expenses he and his wife are incurring over the Whitewater investigation and other pending cases.
At the centre of the latest row on fund-raising bedevilling the President and the Democratic party is a former chinese restaurant owner and businessman whom Mr Clinton describes as "an old friend". Mr Charles Yah Lin Trie, who is now a US citizen, contributed $640,000 to the defence fund, but most of it had to be returned because it infringed the fund's rules.
Soon after Mr Trie made the contributions, in two brown envelopes with cheques and money orders, he was appointed to the prestigious Commission on US- Pacific Trade and Investment Policy. Most of the contributions had to be returned because they were not genuine individual donations.
Fund investigators have since discovered that the bulk of the money was raised under the auspices of a Buddhist sect based in Taiwan with branches in the US.
Some of those whose names were used never gave any money. A separate Buddhist sect and its Los Angeles temple was involved in a Democratic party fund-raising effort by the Vice-President, Mr Al Gore, earlier this year. When this was revealed shortly before the Presidential election, it caused much embarrassment and donations also had to be returned.
Now it has also been revealed that Mr Trie contributed to the Democratic party and that some of these contributions were returned as illegal because they originated with foreign companies. The US media have been asking why Mr Trie was a guest at a White House dinner last week for Democratic fund-raisers.
President Clinton has described Mr Trie as a longtime friend and said he supported the decision to return the contributions.
Mr Clinton, when Governor of Arkansas, used to frequent Mr Trie's chinese restaurant in Little Rock, near his office. Mr Trie has since become a wealthy businessman, jetting around Asian countries and sharing his time between homes in Washington and Beijing.