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 | THE FIRST WITNESS: |
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 The Online Explainers take your question on the investigation.  The NewsHour's coverage of the Congressional Investigation.  The inside stories on the political fight behind the public investigation.  The investigation is big news in Washington, but how's it playing around the country.  A closer look at the issues really under scrutiny by the Congress.
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KWAME HOLMAN: The Committee's lead witness was lead witness was Richard Sullivan. Until last March, Sullivan was finance director for the Democratic National Committee and the deputy director in 1995, when the DNC hired John Huang as a top fund-raiser. SEN. FRED THOMPSON, Chairman, Governmental Affairs Committee: Did you know that Mr. Huang had some relationship with the Lippo Group or the Lippo Bank at that time or later? RICHARD SULLIVAN, Former DNC Finance Director: Just peripherally. KWAME HOLMAN: Huang had been a top executive with the Indonesia-based Lippo Group, which reportedly has close ties to Democratic Party politics. He later spent a short time at the Commerce Department before joining the DNC, where he raised nearly $3 ½ million in campaign contributions, much of it through the Asian-American community. Half those contributions ultimately were deemed questionable by the DNC and returned. Questions by committee chairman Fred Thompson centered on how and why the DNC came to hire John Huang. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: Do you remember the circumstances surrounding that? RICHARD SULLIVAN: Yes. A gentleman named Joe Giroir, an attorney from Little Rock, came in to see Chairman Fowler to suggest to Chairman Fowler that John be hired as a fund-raiser at the Democratic National Committee. I didn't know--I had met him but I didn't know Mr. Giroir well. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: Did you subsequently learn that he was one of the main representatives of the Lippo Group in the United States, that it was his business to set up deals for the Lippo Group with American companies, and that I believe he was associated with the Riadys, who were the principals of the Lippo Group for many years, dating back to Mr. Riady's Little Rock days? Did you subsequently basically learn that information? RICHARD SULLIVAN: I think my basic knowledge was that he had an association with--he had some sort of association with the Lippo Group and James Riady. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: We're going to be talking some about the Lippo Group. The Lippo Group is a multi-billion dollar confederation of companies controlled by the Riady Family of Indonesia. They're involved in banking, finance, insurance, property development, and manufacturing interests concentrated in Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the United States. I think the record will also reflect over the past five years the Lippo Group has shifted its strategic center from its native Indonesia to the People's Republic of China. KWAME HOLMAN: Thompson and Sullivan went through the details of a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington in September, 1995. Attending were Democratic National Committee Chairmen Donald Fowler, the Lippo Group's James Riady, John Huang, still a Commerce Department employee at the time, and Sullivan, himself. RICHARD SULLIVAN: Mr. Fowler and Mr. Riady sat down, and it was--I would characterize it as a get-to-know-you meeting. Mr. Riady asked about Chairman Fowler's past, his past as a political science professor, his past as a state chair, and they explained--exchanged pleasantries, and that was the extent of it. KWAME HOLMAN: Sullivan said DNC Leader Fowler and businessman Riady didn't talk about John Huang at their hotel meeting; however, Sullivan said there were subsequent phone calls to DNC Finance Director Marvin Rosen from Deputy White House Chief of Staff Harold Ickes recommending the hiring of John Huang. Reportedly, the President, himself, then had a conversation with Rosen about whether Huang had been hired. Shortly thereafter, Rosen did hire Huang. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: Without getting into why he did what he did, the only point I'm trying to make is that Mr. Ickes had made a couple of calls, I believe you said, on his behalf, and then chronologically he had this conversation with the President, and he can speak for himself later on that. RICHARD SULLIVAN: Right. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: And then Mr. Huang was hired, is that correct? RICHARD SULLIVAN: That would be a chronological reading post facto, yes. SEN. FRED THOMPSON: All right, sir. KWAME HOLMAN: Sen. John Glenn, the ranking Democrat on the committee, followed with some direct questions about the illegal foreign contributions and got some short answers in return. SEN. JOHN GLENN, (D) Ohio: Did Mr. Fowler ever discuss the possibility of going into that area and trying to raise money from abroad, foreign money as I defined it? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: Was there ever any discussion--pro or con--about whether you'd even consider something like that? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: Was there ever any communication or any even hint from the President or the Vice President that we should include foreign money? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: Did the White House staff--any members of the White House staff--ever give any hint that they should go for foreign money? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: Was there ever any discussion at the Democratic National Committee that Mr. Huang was going to be on board now so we could go for this kind of foreign money? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: When Mr. Huang came aboard, was there ever any discussion with him about going for that kind of foreign money? RICHARD SULLIVAN: No. SEN. JOHN GLENN: Okay. Well, that's very interesting. I think that sort of cuts to the bottom line here. That cuts to the chase here of what we're talking about. KWAME HOLMAN: Sullivan's testimony led New Jersey Democrat Robert Torricelli to this conclusion. SEN. ROBERT TORRICELLI, (D) New Jersey: You are the lead witness in an investigation which has been prepared for more than six months. There are officials of the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign across this country who could have been brought here today. Don't you find it extraordinary that you have no knowledge of any activities of foreign governments to influence this campaign, to provide foreign contributions, to compromise the security of the United States, or to influence policy, and you were the lead witness before this committee? RICHARD SULLIVAN: Yes. I did find that-- SEN. ROBERT TORRICELLI: I do too. And, in fact, using the bell as my cue, I will only suggest, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Sullivan is the lead witness before this committee. One can only conclude that the final witness, after we have exhausted this process, is unlikely to find China on a map. So, Mr. Sullivan, I thank you very much for your testimony. KWAME HOLMAN: But the questions for Sullivan turned to the kinds of activities and events the DNC used to raise money for its 1996 national campaign. Sullivan denied an event at a Buddhist temple in California attended by Vice President Gore was designed to be a fund-raiser, even though it raised $140,000 for the DNC. SEN. PETE DOMENICI, (R) New Mexico: I'm going to change the subject to White House coffees. KWAME HOLMAN: And New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici focused on DNC memos that he said show fund-raising events were held right inside the White House. SEN. PETE DOMENICI: Under this heading of DNC fund-raising dates, there's a coffee on August 8th, and a coffee on September 7th, and a coffee on November 1st, and then it says "President of the United States." That means the President is going to be at the coffee, right? RICHARD SULLIVAN: Right. SEN. PETE DOMENICI: So they were really fund-raisers, weren't they? RICHARD SULLIVAN: Senator, the coffees helped us with our fund-raising. I was the fund-raising director. But they were not fund-raisers; they were not fund-raisers. SEN. PETE DOMENICI: They were not fund-raisers, as you see it, and at least as you testify here. I'm kind of confused, so let me move on to another exhibit for you. Can I? So let's just pick the one dated January 17th. The President is holding a coffee, and look what it says under "projected revenue," it says, $400,000, right? RICHARD SULLIVAN: That's what the document says, but it did not raise anything. It helped us in our long-term goals of raising the amount that we wanted to raise in 1996. It was part of an overall plan to get to the $130 million goal that we wanted to get to. It-- SEN. PETE DOMENICI: Now, for the first time since you've been here, I really believe you are skewing words calculated to confuse the issue. Now, frankly, there is no doubt in my mind the White House coffees were fund-raisers, and you can explain it any way you want, but that's precisely what they were. KWAME HOLMAN: Richard Sullivan returns tomorrow. At the end of today's session, Chairman Fred Thompson announced Attorney General Janet Reno had advised the committee not to offer immunity to former DNC fund-raiser John Huang, which Huang had suggested in exchange for his testimony. But the committee is not bound by Reno's advice, and Thompson said committee lawyers will continue to work with Huang's lawyer to find mutually acceptable conditions for Huang to appear. |
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