Government Reform and Oversight Committee

May 12, 1998
Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I welcome the news report about your intended International Crime Control Strategy, particularly as it relates to national security threats. As you are aware, this Committee’s investigation of foreign money involvement in American political campaigns has uncovered these perils on several occasions.

With that in mind, may I urge that any transnational undertaking to combat crime address:

Improved relations with justice ministries of foreign countries to gain their assistance in securing the return of some twenty individuals who have fled the country rather than cooperate with this Committee.

Securing more than “lip service” cooperation from China regarding the House campaign finance inquiry by demanding that our investigators be given the visas so far refused to visit Beijing, Hong Kong, and other Chinese centers.

Determining whether large contributions to the Democrat party influenced approval for two U.S. companies to transfer ballistic missile technology to China at the same time a federal grand jury was investigating those companies for illegal exports to China of similar technology.

Learning why the Riady’s Lippo Group of Indonesia paid former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell $100,000 out of the total $700,000 that he received and that his recent indictment for tax evasion said was for “little or no work.”

Exploring the circumstances of your Administration’s preventing the State of Utah’s “clean burning” coal property from being mined, a decision that was alleged to bring economic benefit to the Riady family of Indonesia, whose companies control substantial coal deposits.

Probing whether China had a plan to use campaign contributions so that its state shipping company, COSCO, could get possession of the Long Beach naval shipyard in California. As you know, this company has been implicated
in smuggling AK-47s into the U.S.

Investigating any connection between Ted Sioeng’s half million dollars in contributions to the Clinton/Gore effort and his purchasing a pro-Taiwan Chinese language newspaper that he then changed to a pro-communist paper.

Surveying to what extent John Huang’s top secret security clearance (gained five months before working at the Commerce Department and retained for a full year after he left government while working as a DNC fund-raiser) may have contributed to the knowledge base of foreign organizations.

Requesting that your fellow Democrats who are the Minority Members of this committee stop blocking immunity for four witnesses with information about illegal contributions of foreign money to political campaigns. The Justice Department already has immunized two of them and does not oppose Congressional immunity for any of the four.

Mr. President, the Congressional investigations of campaign finance crimes have exposed money laundering, masked contributions, and other violations of law that have occurred across national borders. We believe you would agree that any battle against international lawbreaking should have such felonies in its focus.

Sincerely,

Dan Burton, Chairman