[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4629-H4633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
H.R. 2183
Offered By: Mr. DeLay
(To the Amendments Offered By: Mr. Shays or Mr. Meehan)
Amendment No. 78: Add at the end the following new title:
TITLE __--SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING APPOINTMENT OF INDEPENDENT
COUNSEL
SEC. __01. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING APPOINTMENT OF
INDEPENDENT COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE CLINTON
ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds as follows:
[[Page H4630]]
(1) The Independent Counsel Act (chapter 40 of title 28,
United States Code) was designed to avoid even the appearance
of impropriety in the consideration of allegations of
misconduct by high-level Executive Branch officials.
(2) Section 591(a)(1) of title 28, United States Code,
requires the Attorney General of the United States to conduct
a preliminary investigation whenever the Attorney General
finds specific and credible evidence that a covered person
``may have violated any Federal criminal law ...''.
(3) Under the statute (28 U.S.C. 591(b)), the President is
a covered person.
(4) The bribery statute (chapter 11 of title 18, United
States Code) prohibits Federal officials, including the
President, from receiving any benefit in return for any
official action.
(5) Numerous published reports describe circumstances that
suggest that President Clinton may have received campaign
contributions in return for official government actions he
took on behalf of the contributors.
(6) Any such scheme may also violate other statutes
including the following sections of title 18, United States
Code: section 371 (conspiracy to defraud the United States),
section 600 (promising of government benefits in return for
political support), section 872 (extortion by government
officials), and sections 1341, 1343, and 1346 (mail and wire
fraud by defrauding the United States of honest services).
(7) On February 13, 1997, the Washington Post reported that
the Department of Justice had obtained intelligence
information that the government of the People's Republic of
China had sought to direct contributions from foreign sources
to the Democratic National Committee (``DNC'') before the
1996 presidential campaign.
(8) In March 1995, Johnny Chung, a Democratic National
Committee trustee and a businessman from Torrance,
California, brought six officials of the government of the
People's Republic of China and its state-owned companies,
including Hongye Zheng, Chairman of the China Council for the
Promotion of International Trade, and Yang Zanzhong,
President of China Petro-Chemical Corp., to hear the
President give his regular Saturday radio address.
(9) On March 8, 1995, Johnny Chung came to the First Lady's
office in the White House seeking various favors for the
officials, including admission to the radio address.
(10) Aides to Mrs. Clinton, Margaret Williams and Evan
Ryan, suggested that Mr. Chung could get the favors if he
helped Mrs. Clinton with her debts to the DNC for holiday
parties.
(11) The next day, Mr. Chung gave Ms. Williams a check for
$50,000, and received a lunch in the White House mess, a
picture with Mrs. Clinton, and admission to the radio address
for himself and the officials. Id. Records indicate that on
Friday, March 17, 1995, Mr. Chung donated $50,000 to the
Democratic National Committee and on April 12, 1995, he
donated an additional $125,000.
(12) In commenting on the solicitation in the White House
by the First Lady's aides, Mr. Chung said, ``I see the White
House is like a subway: You have to put in coins to open the
gates.''
(13) On February 6, 1996, Wang Jun attended a coffee at the
White House with President Clinton. Mr. Wang is the head of
the state-owned company, China International Trade and
Investment Corp. (``CITIC''), a $21,000,000,000 conglomerate,
and its subsidiary Poly Technologies. Poly Technologies is
the primary arms dealing company for the Chinese military.
Mr. Wang gained access to the coffee through Charles Yah Lin
Trie, an old Arkansas friend of President Clinton and
Democratic Party fund-raiser.
(14) After the Wang visit came to public attention,
President Clinton said he remembered ``literally nothing''
about the meeting, but he conceded that it was ``clearly
inappropriate.''
(15) Mr. Trie had a number of interesting sources of funds.
Among other things, in the spring of 1996, Mr. Trie delivered
suspicious donations totaling $789,000 to the President's
legal defense fund.
(16) Mr. Trie made the donations on three dates: March 21,
1996, $460,000; April 24, 1996, $179,000; and May 17, 1996,
$150,000. These donations have now been returned. Recent
reports reveal that most of this money came from members of a
Taiwan-based religious sect, Suma Ching Hai. President and
Mrs. Clinton knew about these suspicious donations at the
time, and they concurred in efforts to conceal them until
after the election. Notwithstanding that knowledge, President
Clinton continued to grant favors to Mr. Trie.
(17) On April 19, 1996, President Clinton appointed Mr.
Trie to the Commission on U.S. Pacific Trade and Investment
Policy. On April 26, President Clinton signed a letter to Mr.
Trie relating to U.S. policy in putting carriers in the
Taiwan Straits.
(18) During 1995 and 1996, Mr. Trie received a series of
wire transfers in amounts of $50,000 and $100,000 from the
Chinese government's state-owned bank, the Bank of China.
(19) Recent Senate testimony reveals that Mr. Trie received
$1,400,000 in wire transfers from abroad from 1994 through
1996. At least $220,000 of this money has been traced into
the treasury of the DNC.
(20) Of the total Mr. Trie received from overseas, $905,000
came from Ng Lap Seng, a Macao-based businessman who was
Trie's partner and who was also known as Mr. Wu. Mr. Ng is an
adviser to the Chinese Communist government. Although he is a
foreign national who cannot legally make donations to U.S.
campaigns, he gave money through two employees to attend a
dinner for big contributors with President Clinton on
February 16, 1995.
(21) Returning to Mr. Wang's visit to the coffee with
President Clinton, just four days before the meeting, Mr.
Wang's arms trading company received special permission to
import 100,000 assault weapons, along with millions of
bullets, into the United States despite the assault weapons
ban.
(22) On the day of the coffee, Democratic fund-raiser
Ernest G. Green, another Arkansas friend of the President's,
delivered a $50,000 donation to the Democratic National
Committee. Mr. Green, a managing director at Lehman Brothers,
had never before given such a large contribution to the
Democratic Party. Mr. Wang used a letter of invitation
written by Mr. Green to obtain a visa for Mr. Wang's trip to
the White House for coffee. After delivering the check, Mr.
Green met with Mr. Wang before Mr. Wang went to the White
House.
(23) Several lengthy reports in the Chicago Tribune and the
Washington Post detail the depths of Mr. Wang's international
arms dealing activities.
(24) Beginning in the summer of 1994, Federal agents began
an undercover sting investigation of Poly's efforts to
smuggle weapons into the United States. On March 8, 1996,
just a month after Mr. Wang's visit with President Clinton,
the President of Poly's U.S. subsidiary, Robert Ma, sold his
house in Atlanta and fled the country.
(25) On March 18, 1996, Federal agents surreptitiously
seized a Poly shipment of 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles in
Oakland, California. These weapons had left China on February
18 aboard a vessel belonging to another state-owned company,
the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (``COSCO''). Id. In May,
Federal agents hastily shut down the operation when they
learned that the Chinese had been tipped to its existence.
The stories indicate that the Department is currently
investigating to determine the source of the leak.
(26) Smuggling the weapons into the United States has not
harmed the fortunes of COSCO. In April 1996, with the support
of the Clinton Administration, COSCO signed a lease with the
City of Long Beach, California to rent a now defunct navy
base in Long Beach, California. In addition, the Clinton
Administration has allowed COSCO's ships access to our most
sensitive ports with one day's notice rather than the usual
four, and it has given COSCO a $138,000,000 loan guarantee to
build ships in Alabama. The Administration has made all of
these concessions since the coffee with Mr. Wang. That COSCO
participated in the shipment of illegal arms does not appear
to have dampened the Administration's enthusiasm in any of
these matters.
(27) These circumstances strongly suggest that there was a
quid pro quo, and that the contributions from Mr. Chung, Mr.
Green, and Mr. Trie, may have come from the Chinese
government in return for the various government favors
described. The President met directly with the Chinese
officials whom Mr. Chung and Mr. Trie brought to the White
House, and he knew about the suspicious circumstances of Mr.
Trie's donations. If the President knew about a quid pro quo,
he may have violated section 201 of title 18, United States
Code, and the other statutes cited above.
(28) Mr. Chung has admitted that a large portion of the
money he raised for the Democrats originated with the
People's Liberation Army in China. He has identified the
conduit as a Chinese aerospace executive, based in Hong Kong,
who is also the daughter of General Liu Huaqing, who was
China's top military commander at the time.
(29) Closely related to the allegations concerning the
government of the People's Republic of China are the
allegations relating to the Lippo Group.
(30) The Lippo Group (``Lippo'') is a multi-billion dollar
real estate and financial conglomerate based in Indonesia.
The Riady family, an ethnic Chinese family living in
Indonesia, owns and controls Lippo. The patriarch of the
Riady family is Mochtar Riady. His son, James, has known
President Clinton since the late 1970s when he interned with
an investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since President
Clinton began his first presidential campaign in 1991,
members of the Riady family and Lippo's subsidiaries and
executives have contributed more than $475,000 to the
Democratic Party and its candidates. Lippo and the Riady
family have numerous business interests in China and Hong
Kong.
(31) In the early 1980s, John Huang, the former Commerce
Department official at the center of this controversy, worked
for Lippo in Little Rock at the Worthen Bank, in which Lippo
had a large stake. In 1986, Mr. Huang moved to Los Angeles to
help run the Lippo Bank, which has had a number of problems
with banking regulators. In that role, he became Lippo's
chief representative in the United States.
(32) Mr. Huang began raising illegal contributions for the
Democratic Party as early as 1992. The recent Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee hearings revealed that in
August 1992 Huang gave a $50,000 contribution to the DNC
through Hip Hing Holdings, a U.S.-based Lippo subsidiary. He
then requested and received reimbursement for the
[[Page H4631]]
contribution from Lippo's Indonesian headquarters. Senator
Lieberman said, ``Here's a clear trail of foreign money
coming into United States elections.''
(33) Maria L. Haley, a presidential aide, recommended Mr.
Huang for a job at the Commerce Department in October 1993.
In January 1994 while he was still an employee of Lippo, Mr.
Huang received a top-secret security clearance without a full
background check.
(34) On July 18, 1994, he became principal deputy assistant
secretary for international economic policy in the Department
of Commerce. He received a $780,000 severance payment from
Lippo. David J. Rothkopf, the deputy undersecretary of
commerce, and Jeffrey Garten, the undersecretary, expressed
misgivings about Mr. Huang's suitability for the job. In
recent Senate testimony, Mr. Garten said that Mr. Huang was
``totally unqualified'' for the job and that ``he should not
be involved in China at all.'' Mr. Rothkopf has said his
complaints were to no avail and that he ``got the distinct
impression that this was a done deal. But it was unclear to
me at what level it was done.'' The Riadys have apparently
boasted to friends that they placed Huang in the job.
(35) The Commerce Department now acknowledges that Mr.
Huang attended 109 meetings at which classified information
might have been discussed. Phone records show that Mr. Huang
made at least 70 calls to Lippo during his tenure at the
Commerce Department, many of which occurred near the time of
the briefings. He had contacts with officials of the Chinese
Embassy. Mr. Huang also maintained an office at a private
investment firm with Arkansas and Asian ties, Stephens, Inc.,
where he made numerous phone calls and received faxes and
packages during his Commerce tenure.
(36) Mr. Huang began to raise money illegally before he
even left the Commerce Department, and the DNC attributed
these donations to his wife. In mid-1995, he expressed an
interest in going to the DNC to raise funds. DNC Chairman Don
Fowler did not think that the move was necessary and took no
action.
(37) In September 1995, the President and his closest
adviser, Bruce Lindsey, met with Mr. Huang, James Riady, and
C. Joseph Giroir, a former law partner of Mrs. Clinton's who
was close to the Riadys, regarding Mr. Huang's desire to move
to the DNC. The President has acknowledged that he had a role
in recommending Mr. Huang for the DNC job, and other former
Clinton aides with ties to Asia, including Mr. Giroir,
apparently mounted a concerted campaign to bring about Mr.
Huang's job there. In December 1995, Mr. Huang moved to the
DNC with the title finance vice chairman. After Mr. Huang
left, his Commerce Department position was eliminated. Id.
Strangely, however, Mr. Huang kept his security clearance
long after he left the Commerce Department.
(38) At the DNC, Mr. Huang embarked on an unusual fund-
raising drive in which he raised $3,400,000. Of that amount,
the DNC has identified $1,6000,000 as being illegal,
improper, or sufficiently suspect that it will be sent back
to donors. Many of these donations came from fictitious
donors and, in at least one case, a dead person. One of the
most egregious examples is the $450,000 donated by Arief and
Soraya Wiriadinata. Until December 1995 when they left the
country, this couple lived in a modest townhouse in Northern
Virginia. Mr. Wiriadinata was a landscape architect, and Mrs.
Wiriadinata was a homemaker. Despite these modest
circumstances, the couple wrote 23 separate checks to the DNC
totaling $425,000 from November 9, 1995 until June 7, 1996.
However, Mrs. Wiriadinata is the daughter of Hashim Ning, a
partner of the Riadys in owning Lippo. Democratic Party
officials had concerns about the legality of Mr. Huang's
activities as early as July 1996, but they did not remove him
from his job.
(39) The Wiriadinatas are not the only conduit through
which Lippo money apparently benefited the Clintons. Existing
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is reportedly investigating
whether payments that Lippo made to Webster Hubbell were made
to buy his silence in the Whitewater investigation. These
payments reportedly included paying for a vacation the
Hubbell family took to Bali in the summer of 1994.
(40) One possible quid pro quo for this Lippo money is the
possibility that Lippo bought Mr. Huang's position in the
Commerce Department as well as the accompanying access to
classified information. In addition, during September 1996,
the President announced that he was designating 1.7 million
acres of Utah wilderness as a national monument. This
designation abruptly halted plans to mine the world's largest
deposit of clean-burning ``super compliance coal.'' The
President made this move with virtually no consultation with
people in the affected area of Utah. The second largest
deposit of this kind of coal lies in Indonesia, and critics
suggest that the designation was made as a reward to Lippo.
(41) If there was a quid pro quo for Mr. Huang's position
at the Department of Commerce, his access to classified
information, the designation of the national monument, or all
three, then there may have been a violation of section 201 of
title 18, United States Code, and the other statutes
mentioned above. The President's direct involvement includes
his participation in the September 1995 meeting at which Mr.
Huang expressed his desire to go to the DNC and his
participation in the designation of the national monument.
(42) On February 20, 1997, the Wall Street Journal reported
that a Miami computer executive with close ties to the
government of Paraguay had a number of dealings with the
White House.
(43) The computer executive, Mark Jimenez, is a native of
the Philippines, and he is a legal resident of the United
States. His company, Future Tech International, sells
computer parts in Latin America, including Paraguay. He
apparently has close ties to the government of Paraguay.
Since 1993, Mr. Jimenez and his employees have given over
$800,000 to the Democratic Party, the Clinton-Gore campaign,
and other private initiatives linked to President Clinton,
like the effort to restore the President's birthplace. Mr.
Jimenez has visited the White House at least twelve times
since April 1994, and on at least seven of these occasions,
he met personally with President Clinton.
(44) The timing of some of these donations strongly
suggests that there was a quid pro quo. From February through
April 1996, Mr. Jimenez and various officials of the
government of Paraguay met in the White House with
presidential adviser and former chief of staff, Mack McLarty
regarding threats to the government of Paraguay. On March 1,
the State Department recommended that Paraguay no longer
receive American foreign aid because it had not done enough
to stop drug smuggling. President Clinton then issued a
waiver allowing the continued aid despite the State
Department's finding.
(45) On April 22, the military of Paraguay attempted a coup
against the President of Paraguay, Carlos Wasmosy. The White
House allowed President Wasmosy to take refuge in the
American embassy in Asuncion and took other steps to support
him. The same day, Mr. Jimenez gave $100,000 to the
Democratic National Committee.
(46) In addition, during February 1996, Mr. Jimenez
attended one of the now famous White House coffees. Ten days
later, he gave another $50,000 to the Democratic National
Committee. On September 30, 1996, Mr. Jimenez arranged for a
White House tour for a number of business friends who were
attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund. The
same day, he sent $75,000 to the Democratic National
Committee. The close coincidence of Mr. Jimenez's
contributions with the favors he received is highly
suspicious. The President's direct involvement includes his
calling President Wasmosy to assure him of American support
with respect to the coup attempt and his direct participation
in the coffee in question. If there was a quid pro quo
involved, these incidents may violate section 201, of title
18, United States Code, and the other statutes cited above.
(47) In February, the Washington Post reported that on
September 4, 1995, First Lady Hillary Clinton stopped over in
Guam on the way to the International Women's Conference in
Beijing, China. She ended her visit with a shrimp cocktail
buffet hosted by Guam's governor, Carl T. Gutierrez, a
Democrat. Three weeks later, a Guam Democratic Party official
arrived in Washington with more than $250,000 in campaign
contributions. Within six additional months, Governor
Gutierrez and a small group of Guam businessmen had produced
an additional $132,000 for the Clinton-Gore reelection
campaign and $510,000 in soft money for the Democratic
National Committee.
(48) In December 1996, the Administration circulated a memo
that would have granted a long sought reversal of the
Administration's position on labor and immigration issues in
a way that was very favorable to businesses in Guam. The
story gave the following reason for this shift: Some
officials also attribute the administration's support for the
reversal to the money raised for the president's reelection
campaign. One senior U.S. official said ``the political
side'' of her agency had informed her that the
administration's shift was linked to campaign contributions.
``We had always opposed giving Guam authority over its own
immigration,'' the official said. ``But when that $600,000
was paid, the political side switched.'' United States
officials from three other agencies added that they too had
been told that the policy shift was linked to money.
(49) Various published reports discussed below indicate
that the President was intimately involved in the details of
fundraising for his reelection. As President, he ultimately
controls the Administration's policy. Thus, if these
assertions prove true, a reasonable mind could reach the
conclusion that the President knew about and condoned a
direct quid pro quo for these policy changes. If he did so,
such a quid pro quo would violate section 201 of title 18,
United States Code, and the other statutes.
(50) At least three criminal statutes address the use of
the White House for political purposes. Section 600 of title
18, United States Code, prohibits the promising of any
government benefit in return for any kind of political
support or activity. Section 607 of title 18, United States
Code, prohibits the solicitation or receipt of contributions
for Federal campaigns in Federal buildings. Section 641 of
title 18, United States Code, prohibits the conversion of
government property to personal use.
(51) During January 1995, President Clinton authorized a
plan under which the Democratic National Committee would hold
fund-raising coffees and sleepovers in the White House.
During 1995 and 1996, the White House held 103 of the
coffees. To quote the New York Times, ``[t]he documents
[released by the White House] themselves make explicit
[[Page H4632]]
that the coffees were fund-raising vehicles....[they] also
make clear that the Democratic National Committee was
virtually being run out of the Clinton White House despite
the President's initial efforts after the election to draw a
distinction between his own campaign organization and the
committee.'' The Los Angeles Times said: ``The result [of the
coffees] was not only lucrative, according to some involved,
but occasionally bizarre--sometimes the political equivalent
of the bar scene in the film `Star Wars.' The president and
vice president were surrounded by rotating casts of rich
strangers with unknown motives or backgrounds, including some
from faraway places who didn't speak the same language.''
(52) These reports indicate that Democratic Party
fundraising staff have said in interviews that they directly
sold access to the President and Vice President at the
coffees. The New York Times quoted a Democratic fund-raiser's
response to a White House denial that there was a requirement
for a coffee participant to make a contribution as: ``I don't
understand why they continue to deny the obvious.'' The Los
Angeles Times quoted a fund-raiser as saying: ``I can't count
the number of times I heard, `Tell them they can come to a
coffee with the President for $50,000.' It was routine. In
fact, when [staffers] said, `This is all I can raise,' they
were told, `Keep selling the coffees.' ''
(53) In short, these reports make it obvious that the
coffees, which President Clinton directly authorized, were
nothing but fundraising events. According to the New York
Times, the Democratic National Committee raised $27,000,000
from 350 people who attended White House coffees.
(54) President Clinton also entertained 938 overnight
guests in the White House during his first term. This, too,
became a means of fund-raising. When the original plan to
hold coffees was suggested to the President, he not only
approved it, but also originated the idea of the overnight
visits. On the memo suggesting the plan, he wrote, ``Ready to
start overnights right away ... get other names at 100,000 or
more, 50,000 or more.'' The New York Times reports that these
guests donated $10,210,840 to the Democratic Party from 1992
through 1996. The New York Times said about the President's
notation: ``The memorandum to Mr. Clinton and the response
from the President show Mr. Clinton's direct involvement in
authorizing the fund-raising practices that are now under
scrutiny by Congressional and Justice Department
investigators.''
(55) At least one document the White House has recently
released strongly suggests that President Clinton made
telephone solicitations from the White House. The document,
written by Vice President Gore's deputy chief of staff, David
Strauss, contained the notation, ``BC made 15 to 20 calls,
raised 500K.'' Other documents indicate that presidential
adviser Harold Ickes also proposed that President Clinton
make fund-raising calls. President Clinton has said that he
cannot remember whether he made the calls. If President
Clinton made these calls from the White House, he may have
violated section 607 of title 18, United States Code.
(56) The circumstances of the coffees, the sleepovers, and
the possible telephone calls strongly suggest that the
President may have violated the following provisions of title
18, United States Code: (1) Section 600 (by promising
government access in return for campaign contributions). (2)
Section 607 (by soliciting campaign contributions in Federal
buildings). (3) Section 641 (by converting Federal property,
the White House, to his own private use).
(57) Under the independent counsel statute (28 U.S.C.
591(b)(1)), the Vice President is a covered person. Based on
published reports, the Attorney General has sufficient
grounds to investigate whether Vice President Gore may have
violated Federal criminal law.
(58) On April 29, 1996, Vice President Gore attended a
fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda
Heights, California. This fund-raiser, organized by John
Huang, brought in $140,000 for the Democratic National
Committee. When the event first came to public attention, the
Vice President claimed that the event was intended as
``community outreach'' and that ``[i]t was not billed as a
fund-raiser'' and ``no money was offered or collected or
raised''. The Vice President made this claim notwithstanding
reports that checks changed hands at the event and that
virtually everyone else involved thought the event was an
explicit fund-raiser.
(59) In January 1997, the Vice President admitted that he
knew the event was ``a finance-related event.'' A month
later, documents released by the White House revealed that
the Vice President's staff had referred to the event as a
fund-raiser in making inquiries to the National Security
Council staff about the appropriateness of the event. The
National Security Council advised that he should proceed with
``great, great caution'', but the Vice President proceeded to
go forward with the fund-raiser. This event is apparently now
under investigation by a Federal grand jury.
(60) Hsi Lai Temple, if it is like most religious
organizations, is a tax-exempt organization under section
501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. If that is so, it may
not ``participate in, or intervene in (including the
publishing or distributing of statements), any political
campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for
public office.'' (section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986). By holding such an obviously political event,
the Temple violated its tax exempt status, and Vice President
Gore actively and enthusiastically participated in that
violation. That action may violate section 371 of title 18,
United States Code, as a conspiracy to defraud the United
States by interfering with the functions of the Internal
Revenue Service, and section 7201 of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986, as an evasion of the income tax.
(61) On March 2, 1997, the Washington Post reported
thatVice President Gore ``played the central role in
soliciting millions of dollars in campaign money for the
Democratic Party during the 1996 election'' and that he was
known as the administration's ``solicitor-in-chief''. The
next day, Vice President Gore held a nationally televised
press conference in which he admitted making numerous calls
from the White House in which he solicited campaign
contributions. He said that he made these phone calls with a
DNC credit card. His spokesman later clarified that the card
that he used belonged to the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign
(statement of Vice Presidential Communications Director
Lorraine Voles, dated March 5, 1997). The use of the Clinton-
Gore credit card suggests that the solicitations were for
``hard money'' which goes to campaigns rather than ``soft
money'' which goes to parties.
(62) Documents that the White House has only recently
released reveal that Vice President Gore made 86 fundraising
calls from his White House Office. More disturbingly, these
new records reveal that Vice President Gore made twenty of
these calls at taxpayer expense. This use of taxpayer
resources for private political uses may violate section 641
of title 18, United States Code, (converting government
property to personal use).
(63) On its face, the conduct to which Vice President Gore
admitted appears to be a clear violation of section 607 of
title 18, United States Code. Section 607 of such title makes
it unlawful for ``any person to solicit ... any [campaign]
contribution ... in any room or building occupied in the
discharge of official [government] duties....''.
(64) Recent reports have completely undermined these two
claims with respect to the calls that Vice President Gore
made. The Washington Post on September 3, 1997, reported that
at least $120,000 of the money he solicited from his office
was ``hard money.''. As the story notes, ``The [hard] money
came from at least eight of 46 donors the vice president
telephoned from his White House office to ask for
contributions to the Democratic National Committee, according
to records released by Gore's office.'' The American people
should be are deeply troubled by the length of time it took
for these records, which have apparently been under Vice
President Gore's control, to come to public light. With
respect to the second claim, no person has made any claim
that Vice President Gore made these calls from any place
other than his office, an area clearly covered under section
607 of title 18, United States Code, as a ``room or building
occupied in the discharge of official [government] duties.''
(65) The Washington Post also asserted that Vice President
Gore made the telephone solicitations ``with an urgency and
directness that several large Democratic donors said they
found heavy-handed and inappropriate.'' The story quoted two
donors as follows: ``Another donor recalled Gore phoning and
saying, `I've been tasked with raising $2,000,000 by the end
of the week, and you're on my list.' The donor, a well-known
business figure who declined to allow his name to be used,
gave about $100,000 to the DNC. The donor said he felt
pressured by the Vice President's sales pitch. `It's
revolting,' said the donor, a longtime Gore friend and
supporter. Yet another major business figure and donor who
was solicited by Gore, and who refused to be identified,
said, `There were elements of a shakedown in the call. It was
very awkward. For a Vice President, particularly this Vice
President who has real power and is the heir apparent, to ask
for money gave me no choice. I have so much business that
touches on the Federal Government--the Telecommunications
Act, tax policy, regulations galore.' The donor said he
immediately sent a check for $100,000 to the DNC.''.
(66) Although the Vice President may legally solicit
campaign contributions, it is not legal to exert pressure
based on government actions. The bribery statute (section
201(b)(2) of title 18, United States Code) provides that a
public official may not ``directly or indirectly, corruptly
demand[], [or] seek[], ... anything of value personally or
for any other person or entity, in return for: (A) being
influenced in the performance of any official act; ...'' In
addition, section 872 of title 18, United States Code,
prohibits government officials from engaging in acts of
extortion. Through the use of untoward pressure, the Vice
President may have violated these statutes.
(67) Sufficient specific and credible evidence exists to
warrant a preliminary investigation under the independent
counsel statute.
(68) The fund-raising disclosures have blown up into the
biggest scandal in the United States since Watergate.
(69) This situation is paralyzing the President,
preoccupying Congress and fueling public cynicism about our
political system.
[[Page H4633]]
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
Attorney General Reno should apply immediately for the
appointment of an independent counsel to investigate alleged
criminal conduct relating to the financing of the 1996
Federal elections.