Washington — Congressional investigators hunting for evidence of a pardons-for-dollars scheme at the Clinton White House got their first look on Wednesday at a list of 150 top donors to his presidential library project.
They looked at the list for about 45 minutes, but lawyers for the House Government Reform Committee would not disclose information about the contributors, or say how many of the names would prompt further investigation. All 150 people and organizations on the list contributed more than $5,000.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, which is raising money for the library to be built in Little Rock, Ark., initially resisted giving the donor list to the committee.
The commission chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., then threatened to find foundation director Skip Rutherford in contempt of Congress.
But after several days of negotiations, the foundation and committee agreed on a way for top members of the committee to review the donor list, while protecting the privacy of donors not relevant to the probe.
"We have worked out an agreement, and Mr. Rutherford will not be required to testify" today, Burton said. "We think we'll have all the information we want by Friday, specific contributors, the amount and the dates. We've excused some of them because we don't think the information is necessary at this time."
Rutherford, of Little Rock, said a bipartisan meeting led to a compromise that addresses the committee's needs and the library foundation's privacy concerns. The Clinton foundation also is supplying a list of donors in response to a subpoena issued as part of a criminal investigation into the pardon by U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White in New York.
Members of the committee saw the names of donors, but on Friday will view the amounts and dates of various contributions, said Mark Corallo, committee spokesman.
Among other things, the committee wants to know whether Clinton's decision to pardon fugitive Marc Rich was influenced by contributions to the library. Rich, a billionaire, has lived in Switzerland since just before he was indicted in 1983 on charges of tax evasion, fraud and making illegal oil deals with Iran.
His ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, contributed $450,000 to the foundation, $1.1 million to the Democratic Party and at least $109,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Senate. Denise Rich and her friend, Beth Dozoretz, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee who pledged to raise $1 million for the library project, have both refused to testify before the committee.
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