[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E21-E22]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          FUND-RAISING SCANDAL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 1998

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member would ask his colleagues to 
consider carefully the following editorial from the December 4, 1997, 
edition of the Omaha World-Herald, entitled ``Probe of Fund-Raising 
Scandal Snuffed on Narrowest Grounds.''

       Probe of Fund-Raising Scandal Snuffed on Narrowest Grounds

       Attorney General Janet Reno used astonishingly narrow 
     grounds to excuse her decision not to seek an independent 
     counsel in the White House fund-raising scandal.
       Even Louis Freeh, a former federal judge who is Ms. Reno's 
     FBI director, urged the attorney general in effect to take 
     off her political blinders and acknowledge the appearance of 
     wrongdoing.
       Ms. Reno chose to focus on campaign fund-raising phone 
     calls that President Clinton and Vice President Gore made 
     from the White House. She said the money raised by those 
     calls did not go directly to the Clinton-Gore 1996 re-
     election campaign. Her tortured reasoning is that the money 
     went to the Democratic National Committee for general 
     political use and, therefore, was not covered by the law 
     prohibiting candidates from raising campaign funds on federal 
     property.
       What about DNC documents indicating that significant chunks 
     of the money Gore raised were transferred to his campaign? 
     Never mind, says Ms. Reno; the vice president didn't know 
     about that. Even on the narrow grounds that Ms. Reno used as 
     a basis for her decision, her judgment is suspect.
       An independent counsel--not a Clinton appointee--ought to 
     determine what the vice president knew.
       By limiting her attention to the narrow issue of the White 
     House telephones, Ms. Reno ignored Clinton's role in coffees, 
     sleepovers and the vast web of donors set up by John Haung, 
     Charlie Trie and other operatives with ties to the Lippo 
     group and the government of China.
       She ignored the videotape on which Clinton explained to 
     donors how they could get around limitations on direct 
     contributions by giving unlimited amounts to the DNC. Ms. 
     Reno may be the only person in the nation who still believes 
     that the Clinton-Gore campaign kept its required legal 
     distance from the DNC.
       Ms. Reno also ignored serious allegations of wrongdoing 
     involving the White House China connection. There are 
     indications that the Chinese government had a purpose in 
     using Huang, among others, to make illegal campaign 
     contributions to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. 
     Someone needs to find out what the Chinese expected in 
     return.
       Chinese intelligence agents boasted about ``thwarting'' a 
     Senate investigation headed by Tennessee Republican Fred 
     Thompson, who had set out to expose Chinese involvement in 
     the '96 campaign. Lack of cooperation by the White House, the 
     FBI and the Justice Department foiled the Thompson 
     committee's inquiry.
       Yet Ms. Reno sees no need for independent review--no need, 
     apparently, to look at other serious allegations, including:
       Whether the DNC arranged illegal foreign donations to then-
     Teamsters President Ron Carey in return for the Teamsters' 
     financial and political support of Clinton-Gore '96.
       Whether the White House shook down Indian tribes in 
     Oklahoma seeking the return of tribal lands and overturned 
     Interior Department approval of an Indian casino project 
     along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border because tribes that 
     already operated casinos in the area gave the DNC $300,000.
       Whether the DNC funneled $32 million to state parties with 
     orders to spend it on the Clinton-Gore campaign, thereby 
     exceeding federal campaign spending limits.
       Whether Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary met with a 
     delegation of Chinese businessmen in return for a $25,000 
     contribution to the charity of her choice.
       Until The Washington Post wrote about it, Ms. Reno's staff 
     did not know that money raised from the vice president's 
     office had been spent directly on the vice president's 
     campaign. Yet Ms. Reno focused only on the telephones. Her 
     unfortunate decision left the

[[Page E22]]

     American people with no confidence that the fund-raising 
     scandal will ever be subjected to the scrutiny it deserves.

     

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