July 19, 2000
Rep. Burton Raises Questions About a Gore Remark at 1995 White House Event
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
WASHINGTON, July 18 -- Representative Dan Burton urged Justice
Department lawyers today to question Vice President Al Gore about
a remark that he made on a videotape of a White House coffee in
December 1995.
The videotape is sensitive because it shows both President
Clinton and Mr. Gore and contains two references to James T.
Riady, an Indonesian businessman who did not attend the coffee
but whose large contributions to the Democratic Party are the
subject of a federal investigation of campaign finance abuses.
On the tape of the event, which took place on Dec. 15, 1995, in
the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Mr. Gore addresses Arief
Wiriadinata, an Indonesian gardener who illegally contributed
$455,000 to the Democratic Party earlier that year. The vice
president apparently mentions Mr. Riady.
Mr. Gore is heard telling Mr. Wiriadinata that political issue
television advertisements, paid for by large contributors to the
Democratic Party, should be shown to Mr. Riady, Mr. Burton's
investigators said. Mr. Riady had not contributed any money to
the Democrats in either 1995 or 1996.
On the tape, according to Mr. Burton, the vice president is
heard saying, "We ought to, we ought to, we ought to show Mr.
Riady the tapes, some of the ad tapes."
Mr. Gore is not seen on the tape saying those words, but Mr.
Burton and committee staff's lawyers have concluded that it is
the vice president's voice.
"Given the vice president's apparent location in the room, and
the apparent location of Mr. Wiriadinata, it is a reasonable
assumption that Vice President Gore was making this suggestion to
Mr. Wiriadinata," Mr. Burton wrote today in a five-page letter
on the subject to Attorney General Janet Reno.
"It would indeed be extraordinary for the vice president to
suggest showing political issue advertisements to an Indonesian
billionaire who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia."
During the same coffee, Mr. Wiriadinata tells President Clinton,
"James Riady sent me."
Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for Mr. Gore, said, "Wait until Dan
Burton finds out that when you play the tape backwards it says,
'Paul is dead.' "
Mr. Kennedy declined to comment further.
Mr. Burton, an Indiana Republican, is the chairman of the House
Committee on Government Reform, which has investigated campaign
finance abuses since 1997 and has had the videotape since late
that year. It was unclear why the committee is pursuing the issue
of Mr. Gore's comment now, but Mr. Burton intends to ask
several witnesses about the matter at a hearing scheduled for
Thursday.
Last week the committee's investigators subpoenaed the original
of the videotape from the White House and reviewed it on Monday
at the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Quantico,
Va., to ensure the accuracy of the words attributed to Mr.
Gore. Committee investigators say the vice president's remark
raises a question about what he may have known about any
relationship between Mr. Wiriadinata and Mr. Riady.
The committee referred the videotape to the Justice Department
last December, but Mr. Gore was not asked about it during his
interview with federal investigators last April 19 or in four
previous interviews.
Mr. Burton said today that this raised further questions about
the aggressiveness of the department's campaign finance inquiry.
"At a minimum, it is deeply disturbing that the Justice
Department has failed to take this piece of potential evidence
seriously," Mr. Burton wrote.
In an interview today, James C. Wilson, the committee's chief
counsel, said: "It would have been easy for the Justice
Department to have followed up on this information last year. I
don't understand why the attorney general failed to do so."
Mr. Wiriadinata's contributions to the Democratic Party,
totaling $455,000, made headlines in late 1996 after it was
reported that he had little income working as a gardener in
northern Virginia. His father-in-law was a partner of Mr.
Riady at the Lippo Group, the Riady family conglomerate. The
Democratic National Committee returned Mr. Wiriadinata's
contributions in 1997.
Mr. Wiriadinata is believed to be living in Indonesia and has
not responded to the Burton committee's efforts to interview him.
A White House official said that, after listening to the tape,
aides to Mr. Gore were not convinced that Mr. Riady's name was
used by the vice president. "People say the V.P. is using a
two-syllable name, like Dotty or Godfrey, and not a five-syllable
phrase like Mr. Riady," the official said.
Earlier, the official suggested more definitively that Mr. Gore
had used the name "Godfrey" during the remark. A Houston lawyer,
Lee Godfrey, had attended the same coffee.
In April, Mr. Gore told investigators that he had seen Mr.
Riady only "twice in my life." The first time was during a trip
to Malaysia, and the second time was "when he was in Betty
Currie's office preparing to go in to see the president with a
couple of other people."
Mr. Burton wrote in his letter, "The vice president does not
describe the type of relationship with Mr. Riady that would lead
him to suggest a private screening of political advertisements in
Jakarta, Indonesia."
He suggests seven questions for Ms. Reno's investigators to ask
Mr. Gore about the incident. One of them is: "If the vice
president made a suggestion about showing tapes to Mr. Riady,
what did he know about Mr. Riady that would lead him to make
this suggestion in the presence of Mr. Wiriadinata?"
"If you are interested," Mr. Burton writes in the conclusion of
his letter to Ms. Reno, "the Committee on Government Reform has
the original Beta tape, and I would be willing to make
arrangements to furnish this evidence to you."
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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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