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Hillary Clinton: I Pushed For Database

WASHINGTON (CNN, Jan. 30) -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton confirms that she pushed for the creation of a now-controversial computer database system at the White House during her husband's first term.

Mrs. Clinton told reporters today, "I certainly thought the White House needed a computer database," but she said she had nothing to do with its design or use.

Asked to comment on press reports that the database was used by the Democratic Party for political purposes, she said she was "not aware of any specific uses." She said as far as she knew, the system was used to keep track of official events.

"When we arrived," she said, "there was no computer system, and you can't run any kind of modern enterprise without a modern computer system." She said for example, she initially asked how she would know who had previously been invited to White House dinners.

Mrs. Clinton also said one reason for the need for such a system became obvious earlier in the administration after what she calls "terrible, embarrassing encounters" at several White House events when people were turned away from events due to incomplete invitation lists.

CNN has learned that about 66,000 of the 200,000 or so names in the database were culled from Democratic Party and Clinton campaign lists.

More than 1,000 persons were identified on the database as "1992 Early Supporter -- Financial." A total of more than 300 were listed as "DNC Trustee," an elite group restricted to persons who raised or gave at least $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

The database was used by the White House to keep track of who merited such perks as Christmas cards from the Clintons or invitations to White House events.

While a White House lawyer ruled that it was legal for the database to incorporate names from any source, so long as they were for "official" use, Turman Arnold, former finance chairman of the DNC, told CNN that he "used the 'base to ensure rewards for those who had given" money to the party.

CNN's Jill Dougherty, Brooks Jackson and Timothy McCaughan contributed to this report.