President Barack Obama is not the only United States president New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s Democratic Party mega-donor Dr. Salomon Melgen has approached.
Melgen attended an “intimate” coffee date with President Bill Clinton back in 1995 or 1996 at the White House. A January 25, 1997, article in the Palm Beach Post details the meeting–one of several the Clintons held on the path to Bill’s re-election:
In the most detailed revelations yet of the behind-the-scenes planning for the 1996 campaign, the White House made public Friday the names of hundreds of contributors and other guests invited to more than 100 intimate White House “coffees.” In one case that drew harsh criticism, a session with bankers included not only a top Democratic Party official but also a regulator for the banking industry.
President Clinton attended that meeting and about 70 others between January 1995 and Election Day last November.
In addition to the coffees, the White House drafted strategies to seek votes and money from ethnic groups for Clinton’s reelection and to give special access to contributors, according to a thick pile of documents it released. The release triggered a fresh round of complaints that the Clinton administration has made excessive and questionable use of the White House for wooing support and campaign donations. In the historic first-floor Map Room Clinton met last May with major bank leaders. Also present was Eugene Ludwig, the U.S. comptroller of the currency, whose job is to oversee banking operations.
In releasing the new details after months of money-raising controversies, White House spokesmen staunchly defended the activities as legal and proper, while denying political donations ever affected public policy. Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, called the revelations “astounding.”
Melgen is listed among the Floridians who attended such coffee dates in the Clinton White House with the president, then-first lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, or second lady Tipper Gore.
As Breitbart News has detailed before, Melgen was tied politically to the Clintons. Melgen and his wife Flor donated $2,000 to Bill Clinton, and another $4,700 to Hillary Clinton’s various campaigns. Melgen also shelled out $3,000 to Hugh Rodham, Hillary’s brother, for his unsuccessful 1994 Senate campaign, and $1,000 to Gore’s failed 2000 presidential bid.
Melgen has supported several other politicians’ candidacies in a pattern that aligns with the Clintons as well.
A story in Politico this week tied Melgen to President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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