WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee, claiming its probe of the Federal Communications Commission’s relocation to The Portals is being deliberately thwarted, is considering subpoenaing the Portals developer who paid $1 million to lobbyist and former Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight to seal the deal.
Franklin Haney, a Tennessee real estate developer and long-time friend of Vice President Gore, supplied the committee with various documents relating to his relationship to Knight in securing the Portals contract with the government’s leasing agent, the General Services Administration, but failed to answer a series of detailed questions by last Tuesday’s deadline.
“Mr. Haney’s response fell far short of good faith compliance with the information requested by the Commerce Committee,” said Eric Wohlschlegel, a spokesman for the panel.
“Specifically,” said Wohlschlegel, “the response did not contain any explanation of services that Knight provided. We will continue to press Mr. Haney for full compliance with our questions as we continue to investigate any link between Mr. Knight’s or Mr. Haney’s political connections and the FCC’s relocation to the Portals.”
The committee is considering whether to subpoena Haney or give him another chance to answer its questions.
Haney has hired the influential Washington lobbying firm of Powell Tate to make his case to the media in the nation’s capital.
The Commerce Committee is particularly interested in determining whether the $1 million that Haney paid Knight was a kickback for securing a federal contract. The renegotiated contract between GSA and The Portals added $60 million over and above the original lease. That and the $1 million Knight payment will be paid for by taxpayers to secure more space in The Portals; some congressional investigators believe it is more space than is needed by the FCC. Overall, the 20-year lease is said to cost $400 million.
Today, the 2,000 employees at FCC headquarters in the fashionable downtown district are scattered among eight buildings. The objective was to consolidate FCC workers in one location.
Former Chairman Reed Hundt, a Clinton appointee and prep school friend of Gore’s, has been accused of toning down his earlier opposition to the move and later quietly acquiescing to the relocation once Knight teamed up with Haney.
However, Hundt’s critics have offered no tangible evidence to back that claim.
Congress repeatedly turned down Hundt’s request for $40 million to move across town to The Portals. GSA agreed to loan the FCC money to move, but has yet to deliver with funds.
In addition to the congressional probe, House telecom subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate whether the Portals contract was tainted by political influence peddling.
Tauzin has asked new FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, who previously served as general counsel to the commission, to delay the Portals move, which is scheduled to begin next March.
The Louisiana lawmaker also is expected shortly to question the GSA on its handling of the Portals lease.
FCC officials, past and present, say an August 1994 court ruling requires the agency’s move to the new facility.
Tauzin doesn’t buy that explanation.
“If anyone at the FCC or GSA is telling you that they were under a court order to move to The Portals, then they’re lying,” said Ken Johnson, Tauzin’s spokesman.
