WASHINGTON-The House Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations last week found developer Franklin Haney in contempt of Congress for rebuffing subpoenas in the Portals influence peddling probe, setting in motion a process that could end up landing Vice President Gore’s Tennessee friend in jail.
Peter Knight, Haney’s lobbyist and former ’96 Clinton-Gore campaign manager, and Dennis Thelen, managing director of Knight’s law firm, averted congressional contempt citations by agreeing by last Wednesday’s deadline to turn over all logs and documents requested by the committee.
The committee’s apparent strategy to drive a wedge between Haney and Knight’s law firm paid off.
Haney’s representatives are livid over Thelen’s agreement to cooperate with the subcommittee.
Ken Vest, a Haney spokesman, said his client has ceased all communications with the firm that helped him secure the 20-year, $400 million Portals lease. Vest told reporters Haney is considering suing the Washington, D.C., law firm of Wunder, Knight, Thelen, Levin and Forcey.
The Thelen documents could shed more light on lobbying work performed by Knight, Jim Sasser, former Democratic Tennessee senator and now U.S. ambassador to China, and others on behalf of Haney. So far, Sasser has avoided cooperating with the committee.
Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), whose full committee is expected to take up the Haney contempt matter shortly, said he is considering subpoenaing Sasser.
Contempt of Congress, if successfully prosecuted, carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and/or a $10,000 fine.
Haney and Thelen objected to the subpoenas, saying they violated attorney client confidentiality and were beyond the scope of the Portals lease investigation.
“Till the last dog dies we will continue to fight for this man’s privacy,” said Vest.
The Portals is supposed to be the future headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission. But the agency-despite being ordered to move in by the General Services Administration-said it will not relocate until safety concerns are addressed.
Congressional and Justice Department investigators are looking into a $1 million payment from Haney to Knight, both friends of Vice President Gore, around the time the Portals lease was amended in 1996. They also want to know if there is a connection between the $230,000 contributed by Haney’s firms to Democrats in 1996 and the Portals lease.
Performance fees for securing federal leases are illegal.
Among those interviewed by investigators are former FCC chairman Reed Hundt and Robert Peck, an ex-Hundt aide who moved to GSA and became involved in the Portals lease.
Democrats tried in vain to sidetrack the contempt vote and attacked Republicans for pursing it instead of airing the issue out in a public hearing.
“This has every appearance of being a fishing expedition,” said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).
But Republicans stayed the course, accusing Haney and others of dodging the committee’s inquiries every step of the way since last fall.
“The stalemate caused by Mr. Haney and his associates is not only costing members of this committee their time. Much worse, it is costing taxpayers millions of dollars, as the FCC move has become embroiled in controversy,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the oversight and investigations panel.
The federal government will have paid out $14 million on the empty and still uncompleted Portals facility by mid-July. Communications lawyers and the FCC’s current landlord oppose the move.
“The demand documents will help us get to the truth,” said Barton.
Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), ranking majority member of the Barton panel and chairman of special committee investigating alleged satellite technology transfers to China, said Democrats want to delay the contempt proceeding through this fall’s midterm election in hopes of regaining control of the House.
