GOP Should Launch New Probe of Reno's Wrist-Slaps on China
By Morton M. Kondracke
It smells. Despite abundant evidence that Democratic fundraisers channeled
Chinese government money into the U.S. election campaign in 1996, no one is
going to jail.
One by one, Attorney General Janet Reno's Justice Department has cut
generous plea bargains with the money launderers and hasn't come near
prosecuting any Democratic Party or White House officials.
And if there is any connection between Chinese money and cozy Clinton policy
toward China, it's unlikely to be discovered as Justice lets the fundraisers off
and removes their incentive to talk.
Today, one of the major figures in Chinagate, John Huang, is scheduled to be
sentenced to a fine and community service after pleading guilty to minor
charges having nothing to do with the $1.6 million he raised that the Democratic
Party was forced to return.
Instead, the Justice Department charged him with making two illegal donations
worth $7,500 in two California campaigns in 1993 and 1994.
Huang formerly was an employee of the Indonesian Lippo Group, which does
big business in China. While an official of the Commerce Department with a top
secret clearance, he allegedly made mysterious phone calls to his former
employer. Then he was a Democratic fundraiser with close ties to the White
House.
In spite of all the tantalizing investigative leads Huang represents -- and in spite
of his utter refusal to cooperate in Congressional Chinagate investigations --
Justice is closing out its probe of Huang with a slap on the wrist and a promise
to bring no further charges against him.
Later this month, Justice is scheduled to close the books, too, on President
Clinton's friend, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, who raised more than $1.3 million --
mainly from Asia -- that had to be returned.
He, too, has refused to cooperate with Congress, yet was permitted to plead
guilty to one felony count of making false statements to the Federal Election
Commission. The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to six years in prison
and fines of $350,000, but prosecutors recommended that Trie get a penalty of
three years' probation.
The third major Chinagate fundraiser, Johnny Chung, was sentenced in
December 1998 to probation and community service. But at least Chung did
cooperate with Congress, relating how a Chinese general of military intelligence
told him, "We really like your president" and "we hope he will be re-elected"
and channeled $300,000 to him, of which he gave $35,000 to the Democratic
National Committee.
Chung also wore an FBI body wire when an emissary of the general warned him
to keep his mouth shut and especially conceal China's interest in doing
business with U.S. space technology firms.
Chung's testimony demonstrates that Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) was not
wrong in 1997 when he alleged -- to much hooting from Democrats -- that China
attempted to influence the 1996 U.S. elections.
What's disturbing is that Thompson and other Republican leaders haven't kept
energetically digging into the finance scandal, leaving the work to a few
journalists, right-wing activists and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who's easily
dismissed for hyper-partisanship.
Burton last week blasted Reno for presiding over an investigation that "has
been grossly derelict in getting the facts" and cutting "sweetheart deals for
presidential friends."
Burton is pursuing some interesting avenues, such as a report by Carl Cameron
of Fox News that a former crack federal prosecutor in California, Steven
Mansfield, was ordered to halt a probe he started in 1996 into Vice President Al
Gore's infamous fundraiser at a Buddhist temple.
Cameron reported that Mansfield, who successfully prosecuted former Rep. Jay
Kim (R-Calif.), was ordered to desist in a letter from Lee Radek, head of the
public integrity section of the Justice Department, on grounds that it was a
matter for an independent counsel to investigate. However, no independent
counsel was ever appointed -- with Radek reportedly one of those most
vociferously urging Reno not to take that step.
Burton also has been chasing down evidence, also reported by Cameron, that in
1997 the Justice Department ordered the immediate return to Washington of an
FBI agent and prosecutor sent to Little Rock, Ark., to stop documents from
being shredded by Trie's secretary.
And Burton charges that, for two years, the Justice Department failed to follow
up on information it had about the wire transfer of $300,000 to Chung through a
Citibank account of Liu Chaoying, a Chinese military officer, aerospace
executive and daughter of China's former military chief.
Burton has appealed to Reno and to federal judges in Little Rock and California
to hold off the sentencing of Trie and Huang to give them an incentive to
testify before his Government Reform Committee.
Chances are, the fundraisers will get off. The former chief counsel in
Thompson's 1997 campaign finance probe, Michael Madigan, said the plea
bargains have "all the earmarks of something being swept under the rug."
Indeed, they do. Before the evidence disappears, Congressional Republicans
need to create a select committee to get to the bottom of Chinagate and see
whether U.S. policy was bought for campaign cash. |
