-Caveat Lector-
Opening Statement by Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman, Committee
on Government Reform
"Immunity for John Huang"
October 28, 1999
The first order of business today is to vote to confer immunity
on John Huang. I believe we've reached an agreement on this
issue. I thank Congressman Waxman for that, and I thank all of my
colleagues. I think we're going to have a unanimous vote.
This has been a long time in coming. We've wanted John Huang to
testify since we started this investigation at the beginning of
1997. We've been trying for months to get the Justice Department
to sign off on immunity. John Huang has been cooperating with
them since the beginning of the year. He pled guilty in August. I
thought we should have been able to get this done several months
ago. But as they say, better late than never.
John Huang was James Riady's right-hand man in the United States.
He worked for James Riady at the Lippo Bank in Los Angeles. In
1994, the President appointed him Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Commerce. This happened after a series of meetings involving
James Riady and Webster Hubbell. Mr. Hubbell got $100,000 from
Mr. Riady. A few weeks later, Mr. Huang got his job at the
Commerce Department.
At the end of 1995, he became the Vice Chairman for Finance at
the Democratic National Committee. He was forced to resign from
the DNC prior to the 1996 elections when the fundraising scandal
surfaced. The DNC had to return more than $3 million that he
raised. Most of that came from foreign sources.
We have the FBI's interviews of John Huang. We've been reviewing
them, I believe we've reached an agreement to make them public.
Our staffs will work together with the FBI to redact personal
information and I hope they'll be ready for release early next
week.
I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about two of the
things we’ve learned. I think these issues just reemphasize the
importance of having Mr. Huang testify.
First, in August 1992, James Riady flew from Indonesia to Los
Angeles to attend a fundraiser. He gave $100,000 for that
fundraiser. He took a limousine ride with then-Governor Clinton.
That much has been known for a long time.
Now we're learning for the first time that, having just arrived
from Jakarta, James Riady got in the limousine and promised to
raise one million dollars for Bill Clinton's campaign.
John Huang goes on to state that he and James Riady then arranged
to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions
funneled through Lippo Group employees and subsidiaries. Most of
the employees didn't even live in the United States, but they had
green cards. Mr. Huang states that he got the bank account
numbers from some of these employees and passed them on to Lippo
Group headquarters in Jakarta to make sure that they got
reimbursed.
This raises a very serious question. The Justice Department has
had this information for most of the year. John Huang started
cooperating in January. They've had bank records and memos
showing that Lippo Group subsidiaries were reimbursed for
contributions from overseas. I know because I sent them the
information.
Why hasn't James Riady been indicted? It's certainly not for lack
of evidence. You have clear testimony that James Riady was
organizing conduit contributions. People were being reimbursed
from overseas. You have documentary evidence. A lot of money was
involved. I don’t understand why he hasn’t been indicted.
Other people have been indicted and punished severely by Janet
Reno's Justice Department for far less. Let me give you just one
example. In 1996, a businessman named Simon Fireman funneled
about $120,000 through his employees to the Dole for President
campaign. He got caught. He was prosecuted, as he should have
been. He received a 6 million dollar fine.
James Riady arranged more than $700,000 in contributions to Bill
Clinton's campaign in 1992. Most of them were illegal. The
Justice Department hasn’t touched him. Why not?
It looks like the Attorney General has set two different
standards -- a harsh one for some and a lenient one for others.
This isn't the only example of unequal treatment we've seen.
I want to mention one other matter raised by Mr. Huang. He was
working at the Commerce Department in the fall of 1995. He told
the FBI that he got a phone call from Harold Ickes at the White
House. He states that Harold Ickes asked him to raise money for
the campaign of one of our colleagues -- Jesse Jackson Jr. John
Huang did so, which appears to be a violation of the Hatch Act.
Now, Jesse Jackson Jr. is an honorable person. There's no reason
to believe he knew any of this was going on. But this raises
serious legal issues for John Huang and Harold Ickes. The
Attorney General has refused to appoint an independent counsel
for Harold Ickes. It's too late now, the law has expired. But she
knew about this a long time ago. There were a lot of reasons to
appoint an independent counsel for Mr. Ickes. Most of them were
publicly known. This allegation was a secret. Only the Justice
Department knew about it. The fact that Janet Reno knew about
this allegation and still didn't appoint an independent counsel
is very disturbing.
I read in the paper this morning that the Justice Department has
cobbled together a defense for Harold Ickes. They say he may not
have been Huang’s superior. But this technical excuse -- which
doesn't even make sense -- is unbecoming of the Justice
Department.
Throughout the campaign finance investigation, they've looked
more like criminal defense lawyers than the nation's prosecutors.
For over a year we've been quietly and thoroughly investigating
the Justice Department's conduct in the campaign finance
investigation. My staff is writing a report, which we will
release next year. It's not a story that brings credit to the
Attorney General.
I think this all shows very clearly why we need a vigorous
Congressional investigation in this area. When the Attorney
General said that she wouldn't seek an independent counsel, she
said that she could handle the job -- that she could conduct an
honest investigation of her boss -- the President. She invited
scrutiny. She accepted accountability. Why wasn't James Riady
indicted? Why wasn’t an independent counsel appointed for Harold
Ickes? Janet Reno needs to answer these questions.
If this committee hadn't pressed the issue of getting immunity
for John Huang, we still wouldn't know about some of this
evidence. That's why this investigation is so important.
These are just a couple of the issues that we need to hear about
from John Huang. There are many questions. The American people
deserve to have answers. That's why I have thought all along that
it was very important that Mr. Huang testify before this
Committee.
I want to thank my colleagues for their cooperation in making
this happen. Mr. Waxman, thank you for your cooperation. Thanks
to all the Members, Democrats and Republicans.
Because of scheduling conflicts that Mr. Huang's lawyer has, it
will be several weeks before we can have Mr. Huang testify. It
will have to be during the recess. I'll keep all of my colleagues
informed. I hope as many Members as possible can come back and
participate in the hearing.
Thank you again, and I yield to Mr. Waxman.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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