WASHINGTON-Several prominent wireless industry figures attended White House coffees, which along with telecom-related trade missions are tied to an escalating Democratic fund-raising scandal that last week prompted a flood of congressional subpoenas and threatened to sidetrack Senate confirmation of two Clinton cabinet nominees.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, headed by Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), voted over Democratic objections to issue 52 subpoenas for documents from former Clinton aides, Clinton friends, the Indonesian-based Lippo financial conglomerate and its affiliates, the Commerce and State departments, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, three regional Bell telephone companies and others.
The House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight said it will issue subpoenas to several of the same individuals. The GOP-led Congress, which promised to investigate Democratic and Republican fund raising in the last election cycle, is negotiating with Democrats about issuing subpoenas to the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee and the White House.
The Clinton administration, for its part, was put further on the defensive by startling revelations that the Chinese Embassy may have directed foreign dollars to the Democratic National Committee. Foreign campaign contributions are illegal.
It has been speculated the new developments could pressure Attorney General Janet Reno, who has rejected three requests for the appointment of an independent counsel, to make such an appointment.
Invited and/or having attending at least one of the 103 coffee klatches over the last two years were Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Association; Gerald McGowan, a wireless attorney, an undergraduate classmate of President Clinton at Georgetown University and a board member of the Overseas Private Investment Corp.; Shelby Bryan, president of IntelCom Group Inc. and former Millicom International Communications chairman; Laurence Harris, senior vice president of Associated L.L.C. and former top lobbyist of MCI Communications Inc.; and Hu Weileng, executive director and vice executive president of Motorola-Asia.
The coffees with business leaders and several persons with unsavory backgrounds, most of which were attended by President Clinton, have come under fire over claims that the meetings, like trade missions to India, China, Russia and Latin America (all emerging economies with huge wireless growth potential) were fund-raisers on behalf of the ’96 Clinton-Gore campaign.
It is illegal to solicit campaign contributions at the White House and public officials are restricted from direct political fund raising generally.
But it appears the White House got around the law by using the coffees as setups for follow-up solicitations.
“I’m comfortable with everything we did in the last election,” said Wheeler, a Democratic fund-raiser.
CTIA was successful in gaining administration cooperation and support for federal land antenna siting and a project to equip community volunteers with cellular phones.
Clinton concedes “mistakes were made,” and he has tried to distance himself from DNC fund-raising activities. But there is increasing evidence, based on published reports, that the relationship between the White House and the DNC is closer than either admits. In fact, The Washington Post reported that Clinton and Vice President Gore approved the Democratic fund-raising master plan.
Donald Fowler, former head of the Democratic National Committee, acknowledged the coffees were designed for fund raising. “They wouldn’t get the message at the meeting,” Fowler told The Boston Globe in its Feb. 10 issue. “Someone would call them and ask them. One would be naive to say that the call was purely coincidental.”
A study conducted for the Globe found that 358 people or firms represented at the coffees donated $27 million between 1995 and 1996.
In addition to fund-raising and influence peddling allegations, concerns have been raised about whether trade missions under late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown created opportunities for economic espionage and threats to national security.
John Huang, a Clinton-appointed Commerce official under Brown in 1994 who joined the DNC in 1995 and became a prolific fund-raiser in Asian-American circles, is at the center of the Democratic fund-raising storm.
Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, has questioned whether Huang’s past employment in Little Rock, Ark., with the Lippo Group, a huge financial conglomerate run by the Indonesian Riady family, and his continued ties to Lippo may have influenced trade policy with China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other Asian nations. It is estimated than half of China’s $50 billion telecom market will be wireless telecommunications.
Solomon, whose concerns prompted FBI Director Louis Freeh to launch an investigation, has also suggested that Huang’s access to intelligence briefings, combined with his trade policy activities, may have compromised U.S. economic and security interests.
William Daley, recently confirmed as Commerce secretary and brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, has vowed to eliminate 100 political positions in Commerce, and called for a 30-day moratorium on trade missions.
Commerce is conducting its own internal audit of the trade mission selection process and related matters.
Others attending at least one coffee were Martina Bradford and Carol Wilner, AT&T Corp.; Donald Schuenke, Northern Telecom Inc.; Morton Bahr, AFL-CIO/Communications Workers of America; Andrew Werth, Hughes Network Systems International Inc; Laurie Johnson, U S West, Gary Shapiro and John Kelly, Electronics Industries Association; Kristen Grimm Wolf, the Millennium Communications Group; Steve Rattner, a telecom investment banker at Lazard Freres and Co.; Robert Annunziata, Teleport Communications Group; and Tim Boggs, Time Warner.
