WASHINGTON-Franklin Haney, the embattled Tennessee developer, will testify Tuesday before the House Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Congressional and Justice Department investigators are probing whether the 20-year, $400 million federal lease on the Portals, the controversial future headquarters for the Federal Communications Commission, is tainted by political influence peddling and illegal payments.
Haney paid $1 million each to Peter Knight, manager of the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign and a former House aide to Gore, and to former Sen. James Sasser (D-Tenn.), now U.S. ambassador to China, for Portals lobbying.
Performance fees on federal leases are illegal.
Haney, recently cited for contempt by the House Commerce Committee for refusing to surrender subpoenaed Portals documents, contributed $230,000 to the Democrats in the 1996 election cycle that returned Bill Clinton and Al Gore to the White House.
