Looked up investigative reporter Labaton...He's done several including some articles below....priscilla comments here about three of SL's on the front page of the NY Times all on the same day..........March 6, 1997.............
manslife.com
The Headlines
for
March 6, 1997
By Priscilla Turner
The New York Times
Aide to First Lady
Was Given Check
At White House
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Donor Is Investigated
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$50,000 Contribution Is First
Known Instance of Money
Being Passed There
USA Today:
Rules target
home health
care abuses
The New York Post:
O.J. FACES
NEW FIGHT
FOR KIDS
Browns plan to appeal over custody
Other stuff in the news:
• Oh, we got trouble! When two of the three front-page-above-the-fold stories in The New York Times have Stephen Labaton's byline on them, you know it's not going to be good day at the Casa Blanca.
The headline story, all about Maggie "The Defiant One" Williams, was broken last night by NBC news. Stephen Labaton expands:
"The chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted a $50,000 donation to the Democratic Party in 1995 in the White House from a California businessman who has emerged as a control figure in the criminal and Congressional investigations into improper fund-raising by the Democrats, Administration officials said tonight..."
The donation, made by Johnny "The Hustler" Chung now becomes "the first known instance in which a campaign check was handed to an Administration official at the White House during the last four years." And as we know, even if Al Gore does not, that is "wrong."
Wait a minute! Reading ahead, I see "Proud" Al Gore isn't the only Clintonista who sees no evil.
Labaton continues: "White House aides defended Miss Williams today, saying that she had simply passed along a check that was given to her by a frequent White House guest and devoted fan of Mrs. Clinton..."
"Devoted fan?" What's that mean, Steve? Don't leave us hanging! Let's move over to the Wall Street Journal for a sec -- the news, not the right-wing-editorial side!
The Journal:
"In an interview with [NBC], Mr. Chung's lawyer, Brian Sun, indicated the donation may have been in exchange for access to the White House and Mrs. Clinton. On the day he gave the check, Mr. Chung and six Chinese government officials had their photograph taken with Mrs. Clinton. It was the second day in a row that Mr. Chung, whom White House officials have described as having 'a crush' on the first lady, had been to the White House."
Just a cotton pickin' minute! The 50 K was for "access" to HRC? Even someone with a far less lively imagination than I might interpret that somewhat salaciously, don't you think? That Bill C. is one tolerant hubby!
So how did the White House's designated $candal $pokesgal, Ms. Ann Lewis, handle this latest hot potato? The Post's Thomas Galvin:
"'[Maggie W.] recalls an occasion when Johnny Chung wanted to give her a check for the DNC,' said...Ann Lewis.
"'She does not remember any details about the conversation or any other details about the check or the day of the conversation.'
"Lewis added that it was the 'only such conversation [Williams] remembers' with Johnny Chung, but said she hadn't asked Williams whether she had similar conversations with anyone else..."
More from Ann Lewis, via USA Today:
"'This was all done according to White House procedure. If staff members get contributions either by mail or hand-delivered at the White House, their responsibility is to forward it to the person or entity who can properly accept it,' Lewis said.
"Lewis also said, 'The act of handling and forwarding a contribution ... does not violate the Hatch Act,' which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity.
"However, NBC News quoted Republican former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova as saying that Williams had broken federal law. 'The White House is completely wrong. It is illegal to receive federal campaign funds on property at the White House or at the Executive Office Building,' which is part of the White House complex, he said..."
• That's a capital "T"... The other above-the-fold page one-er in today's Times?
Payment to an Ex-Clinton Aide
Is Linked to Big Chinese Project
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Records Show Hubbell Got Large Fees in 1994
By Jeff Gerth and Stephen Labaton. Batman! Robin!
"In the months after Webster Hubbell was forced to resign to face a criminal investigation in 1994, the former Associate Attorney General received more than $400,000 from about a dozen enterprises, including the organizers of a multibillion-dollar development of the Clinton Administration, according to associates of Mr. Hubbell and to Government records..."
Lots of $$$ that found its way to Webb "came from businesses controlled by old friends and campaign donors" of the Prez, say Jeff & Steve. That's not what caught their collective investigative eye, tho:
"[The] largest payments appear to have come from Hong Kong businesses controlled by the Riady family of Indonesia that have been dealing with the Chinese Government. These businesses are central to a $2 billion American-Chinese project on a ground-breaking trade mission to Beijing in August 1994, two months after Mr. Hubbell was put on the payroll of a Riady family company. Afterward, an Arkansas associate of the Riadys left a message with a friend in the Administration saying the Lippo financial ground, controlled by the Riadys, was 'very happy' with the outcome of the trip.
"A reconstruction from public records and interviews with witnesses, associates and former employers of Mr. Hubbell show that he was paid significantly more money than was previously known, far more in fact than he had earned as a lawyer in Little Rock, Ark., and from a wider variety of sources, many with close ties to Mr. Clinton.
...[The] new details show that [Hubbell's] income was derived from businesses in Hong Kong controlled by the Riadys that have worked closely with the Chinese Government on the huge project in Fujian... "
Since our Prez never seems to know about any of these things until he -- just like us! -- reads 'em in the papers, just imagine his Claude Raines-like shock when he picked up the Times aujourd'hui! |
