WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee, raising the stakes in its probe of the Federal Communications Commission’s planned headquarters move, last week authorized subpoenas to Portals developers Franklin Haney and Steven Grigg; lobbyist and former Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight; Jim Sasser, U.S. ambassador to China and former U.S. senator; and others linked to Knight’s law firm.
The committee’s 9-6 vote, which broke down along party lines, does not mandate subpoenas; it simply allows them to be issued.
Republican congressional investigators claim Haney, Knight, Sasser and others have stonewalled them instead of voluntarily cooperating with the Portals probe.
Haney, through spokesman Ken Vest, said the Tennessee developer will fight any subpoena. “The committee does not have the authority to subpoena,” said Vest. “This investigation is destined for the boulevard of broken dreams.”
The limited paperwork provided by targets of the investigation appears only to have heightened the curiosity of investigators.
“The documents raise more questions than they answer,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Indeed, as it has unraveled, it has become evident the Portals is much more than an inside-the-Beltway story.
The Rocky Mountain News, in an April 26 expose on Haney, reported that questionable tax-free bond deals finessed by Haney in Colorado helped finance another questionable deal in Washington, D.C.: the Portals.
Democrats, like Rep. Ron Klink (Pa.), angrily denounced the subpoena authorization as a political witch-hunt orchestrated by the House Republican leadership.
“From what I see, this investigation is partisan. It’s part of a political strategy handed down from the speaker’s office, devoid of any meaningful public policy,” said Klink. Last week’s Portals hearing coincided with stepped-up attacks on the Clinton administration from House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other Republicans.
Klink, blasting Barton for abusing the committee’s investigative powers, said the probe further delays the FCC’s move to the Portals at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
Klink’s criticisms and those voiced by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) provide insight into the Democrats’ strategy in the Portals fiasco.
First, following the administration’s lead in trying to limit damage from the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations, Democrats want to undermine Barton’s credibility and character much as they have tried to do with independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
Second, Klink’s unsuccessful attempt to limit the scope of any subpoenas is analogous to the administration’s claim of executive privilege and its laggard efforts in producing key documents.
The government has paid Haney and Grigg $7 million in rent for an empty and semi-constructed building in Southwest Washington, D.C., which is close to other government buildings but removed from trendy restaurants and retail shops surrounding the eight or nine FCC offices in the bustling downtown district in Northwest.
A subplot to the Portals probe involves a concerted effort by communications lawyers and the FCC’s current landlord, Charles E. Smith Co., to block the FCC relocation to the Portals.
House investigators are focused on a $1 million fee paid by Haney, a Tennessee developer and friend of Vice President Al Gore, to Knight, a longtime Gore confidant and fund raiser, for securing a 20-year, $400 million Portals lease with the General Services Administration.
Performance fees for federal leases are illegal.
Haney maintains the $1 million covers a variety of projects over several years that Knight worked on. But the fee arrangement does not square with Knight’s firm’s practice of billing by the project. Haney and Knight refuse to name the other projects included in the $1 million fee.
After negotiating a sweeter, supplemental lease with GSA, the government’s leasing agent, in early 1996, Haney and his companies donated $230,000 to Democrats.
The campaign contribution component has prompted the Justice Department to investigate the Portals matter as well.
Records and documents are being sought on any contacts and communications among key subpoena targets, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, Robert Peck, a senior GSA official and former FCC official with Portals relocation duties under Hundt, and Gore.
Gore’s spokesperson has denied any wrongdoing by the vice president in the past. Hundt, a former prep school classmate of Gore’s, also has said he is innocent of any misconduct.
It is unclear whether, in addition to possibly subpoenaing documents, the committee will order Haney, Knight and others to testify in open hearings.
