[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 26, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS ON PORTALS BUILDING

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON KLINK

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 25, 2000

  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Commerce Committee received a 
letter from the Department of Justice which stated that the Department 
found that ``there is not a sufficient basis to warrant a criminal 
investigation'' concerning whether a document was ``intentionally'' 
withheld by Tennessee developer Franklin Haney or one of his business 
associates in a ``deliberate'' attempt to obstruct the Committee 
investigation of the lease for the Portals building. That building is 
now the headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission.
  This letter marks the second time in two years that the Justice 
Department has rejected the majority's call for a criminal 
investigation because staff believed its Portals' work had been 
obstructed. In December of 1998--after the Committee's year-long 
investigation and seven days of hearings resulted in a spectacularly 
unsuccessful attempt to uncover improper political influence in the 
leasing of the Portals building--the majority wrote a staff report 
outlining its unsubstantiated suspicions and asked Justice to determine 
if the witnesses had made false statements ``under oath in a deliberate 
effort to mislead the Committee and obstruct its legitimate fact-
finding processes.''
  This referral was made, even though not a single witness testified to 
improper influence, and not a single document provided the necessary 
evidence. Justice responded by stating that there was no ``specific and 
credible'' evidence to support the allegations of perjury and 
conspiracy.
  The majority has never accepted the results of their own 
investigation or even the FBI's. The FBI has already done an extensive 
investigation of the origins of and statements in the unproduced 
document and obtained no evidence to warrant prosecution. So now 
apparently the allegation is that if the Committee had had the 
document, it could have done a better job. Nothing in the Committee's 
history indicates any truth in that statement.

                          ____________________