Here's the piece from the Washington Times:
Records show Democrats' stall plan
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By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee sought for two years to delay and obstruct the panel's campaign-finance investigation, even telling a top White House aide to make himself unavailable for a deposition to which he had been subpoenaed, according to congressional records.
The documents, reviewed in the wake of accusations this week by former Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung that he was coached on how to plead the Fifth Amendment before a 1997 appearance before the committee, outline a suspected plan by Democrats to block the committee's ongoing probe.
Republicans have begun an investigation to determine what role Democrats played in trying to protect the White House against accusations of campaign-finance abuses.
Chung, in interviews this week with Fox News, said Democrats sent his attorney a package of materials explaining how he could avoid testifying. The committee's minority counsel, Philip Schiliro, told The Washington Times on Monday that Chung's attorney, Brian Sun, had requested information on whether he would be compelled to testify before the panel and subjected to television cameras.
But Mr. Sun denied in a statement last night making any request, saying he asked no one for information on whether his client should, could or would testify.
"The Democratic minority counsel has acted as defense attorneys for a whole list of would-be witnesses, trying to scare them into not testifying," said the committee's spokesman, Mark Corallo. "They didn't have to come right out and blatantly tell the witnesses not to testify, but they certainly set a tone of fear and intimidation.
"They made no effort to find out the truth of whether campaign-finance abuses during the 1996 election compromised our national-security system," he said.
Mr. Schiliro denied GOP accusations that Democrats sought to delay or block the probe, calling them "ludicrous." He said Republicans had "unilateral authority" to investigate whatever topic or person they wanted and did so without hesitation. He said 163 persons were interviewed over 650 hours and that 2 million documents were collected during the course of the probe.
"I don't know of any issue the chairman wanted to investigate that he didn't," he said. "There is not a single instance they can cite where they were blocked from conducting a deposition, issuing a subpoena or doing whatever they wanted."
But Republicans said yesterday that committee records, including depositions of key witnesses and numerous letters written concerning the panel's inquiry, document GOP concerns that committee Democrats and their attorneys sought to delay the depositions, intimidate would-be witnesses and obstruct the investigation.
They said the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California, wrote in an April 3, 1998, letter to committee Chairman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, that he was "disappointed" the deposition of White House Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey -- a key figure in the campaign-finance probe -- had been scheduled during the spring recess.
Mr. Waxman told the chairman that he had advised Mr. Lindsey to "not be available for this deposition" -- a suggestion roundly criticized by Republicans as an example of what they said were delaying tactics utilized by Democrats throughout the probe.
The committee records, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times, show that:
Democrats proposed that each prospective witness in the committee's investigation into suspected criminal activities be read a statement saying it was "your choice whether to speak with" committee investigators, that they had "every right" to decline to be interviewed, and that they might be called as a witness "to testify in a televised public hearing."
During the deposition of one White House official, minority counsel raised objections on 49 occasions, and that during another deposition, the Democrats sought to prevent a witness from answering questions by the majority counsel despite the witnesses' willingness to do so.
At some depositions, objections were raised directly by Mr. Waxman and Rep. Tom Lantos, California Democrat, both of whom challenged with some regularity the validity of questions asked by the majority counsel. During the deposition of one White House aide, Republicans said Mr. Waxman tried to prevent questions concerning former Justice Department official Webster L. Hubbell, a longtime friend of President and Mrs. Clinton.
Democrats sought to block committee efforts to subpoena records from state Democratic Party organizations, through which suspected illegal campaign funds had been funneled. Mr. Waxman argued there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Investigators later discovered that illegal donations had been routed to the state organizations.
Chung, once described by a White House national security aide as a "hustler" seeking to turn high-level government contacts into business opportunities, told Fox News that in 1997, "the Democrat side of the Government Reform Committee sent a package to my office, to my attorney's office. . . . I don't receive personal, but my attorney's office received the package. It says how you can plea -- how you can take a Fifth in the United States Congress."
At his Nov. 14, 1997, committee appearance, Chung invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify under oath, although he answered questions "off the record" for investigators about donations he made to the Democratic Party.
Last year, Chung, who visited the White House 57 times and gave $366,000 to Democrats between 1994 and 1996, pleaded guilty to using "straw donors" to illegally funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the Clinton-Gore campaign. He agreed to cooperate with Justice Department prosecutors and was sentenced to five years' probation.
INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!! JLA |
