Washington ? For the third time in less than a month, President Bush sat down with the Republican Party’s biggest donors Wednesday.

The president attended a private “donor maintenance” lunch with high-rolling contributors inside a historic Washington home. It was impossible to say exactly who was in the room with him, or what was said, because reporters were forced to wait outside the event while he mingled. Most of Bush’s fund-raisers are open to the news media.

The White House and the Republican National Committee asserted that they didn’t know details such as who attended.

Bush attended similar closed-door events twice last month, on Jan. 7 and Jan. 14.

Also Wednesday, first lady Laura Bush headlined a Bush-Cheney luncheon in Savannah, Ga., that raised $230,000 for the re-election.