Does $25,000 Buy A Meeting With A Cabinet Officer?

Yes, fund-raising figure Johnnie Chung tells NBC

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Aug. 20) -- Democratic fund-raising figure Johnny Chung says his $25,000 charitable donation greased the skids for a meeting between then-Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary and a Chinese petrochemical industry official.

Chung told NBC News in an interview that an Energy Department official and a lobbyist hit him up for a donation to O'Leary's favorite charity. "It will be nice if you make your donation to Africare," Chung quoted the two as saying. The group promotes economic development and health care in rural Africa.

"I begin to understand a little," Chung told NBC, "but I'm still a little bit surprised."

Later, Chung said, "One gentleman presented himself as the Energy Department official and said, 'I'm here to pick it up, the $25,000 check.'"

Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler relayed the meeting request, and O'Leary posed for pictures with about a dozen Chinese businessmen on Oct. 19, 1995.

Energy Department spokeswoman Carmen MacDougall told The Associated Press that the Energy official denies asking for the donation, but that current Energy Secretary Federico Peña takes Chung's allegations seriously and has passed them on to the department's inspector general.

Chung also told NBC that Evan Ryan, a White House aide, assured him that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton knew of his $50,000 donation to help pay for a White House Christmas party. "'Did Mrs. Clinton know I put another contribution of $50,000?'" Chung says he asked. "She says, 'She definitely knows.'"

That gift has drawn some attention because Chung handed the check to Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams, inside the White House.