Probe into gifts to Clinton fund expands to include Chinese arms dealer’s visit to White House

The Los Angeles Times | December 20, 1996

WASHINGTON - As the Justice Department launched an investigation into more than $600,000 in questionable contributions to President Clinton's legal-defense fund, administration officials said yesterday the central figure in the controversy had brought the chief of a Chinese military-weapons trading company to meet the president last Feburary.

White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the president's aides made a mistake last Feb. 6 when they permitted Charles Yah Lin Trie, a Clinton friend and former Arkansas restaurant owner, to bring the visitor to a political breakfast in the White House residence.

"This is not how we conduct bilateral discussions with the Chinese government," McCurry said in an interview. He said White House aides had failed to consider the implications of the visit by the arms dealer, Wang Jung, before they approved it. But he added that those who attended the session do not remember Wang saying anything.