White House Fund-Raising Call Is Alleged

WASHINGTON — Former Commerce Department official John Huang has told federal investigators that White House aide Harold M. Ickes called him at his government office in 1995 and asked him to “round up” donations for the congressional campaign of Jesse Jackson Jr., legal sources said.

Federal law prohibits government employees such as Ickes, who has left the White House and now advises Hillary Rodham Clinton’s prospective Senate campaign, from soliciting campaign donations from subordinates. It is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

The Justice Department conducted an initial inquiry into Huang’s allegations but concluded there was no need to seek an independent counsel to investigate Ickes, according to legal sources familiar with Huang’s testimony.

Huang told the investigators he donated $1,000 to Jackson and raised an additional $6,000 to satisfy Ickes’ request, the sources told Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

At the time of Ickes’ alleged call, the White House was watching the plans of Jackson’s father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was considering a challenge to President Clinton as an independent presidential candidate. Ickes worked in the elder Jackson’s 1988 presidential drive.

Jesse Jackson Jr., now a congressman from Illinois, said Wednesday the FBI interviewed him about three months ago.

“I did not talk to Mr. Ickes during my campaign about fund-raising, about raising any money for our efforts and I indicated this to the FBI,” Jackson said.

His father, asked whether he had ever talked to the White House about supporting his son’s campaign, said: “No. I have no knowledge of that, no recollection of that at all.”

The elder Jackson said he had spoken frequently to Ickes in 1995, but “Harold did not do a fund-raiser for us” and “to my knowledge” did nothing else. “The only time the administration was involved was when Vice President [Al] Gore came out” to Chicago on the eve of young Jackson’s election victory, he said.

Ickes, a White deputy chief of staff and architect of Clinton’s 1996 reelection, has steadfastly denied breaking any fund-raising laws. Ickes and his lawyers, Robert S. Bennett and Amy Sabrin, did not return calls this week to their offices seeking comment. Huang’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, declined to comment.

According to legal sources, Huang told Justice last winter that Ickes called him at his government office and set up an Oct. 2, 1995, job interview at the White House. Ickes said he was trying to “round up people” to support Jackson and asked Huang to raise $10,000 to $15,000 for Jackson from Asian Americans, the sources said.

Huang told investigators he believed it was wrong for him to solicit donations under laws regulating federal workers’ political activities. But he told Ickes he would try to help.