I know there are some people out there who find the concept of
government conspiracies amusing. Despite any evidence that surfaces
pointing to government cover-ups of illegal activity, “level-headed”
citizens give Uncle Sam’s agents the benefit of the doubt and call the
rest of us “paranoid.”
Those people may call themselves level-headed, but I say they are
ostriches burying their heads in the sand. As the saying goes, it’s not
being paranoid if they’re really after you.
Webster defines conspiracy as “a joining secretly with others for an
evil purpose; a plot.”
I submit to you that extortion and attempting to conceal the crimes
of the president of the United States — the leader of the free world —
are indeed evil purposes.
Government conspiracies exist. I know this because I have been used
in some of them. Let’s review just two of them now.
After two and a half years, the Justice Department finally handed
over documents to the House Government Reform Committee, which released
them this week. The documents add to the mounting pile of evidence
demonstrating a conspiracy at the highest levels of government in the
Chinagate scandal.
Eager reporters writing their stories called me up with many
questions. But they all wrote piecemeal stories, focusing on different
aspects of the whole story instead of giving the big picture. I’d like
to add to those stories by giving you a bit more inside information
straight from the horse’s mouth.
One of the newly-released documents was a memo from FBI Director
Louis Freeh, recommending the appointment of an independent counsel to
investigate former Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary for
involvement in Chinagate.
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Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary with Johnny Chung
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In case you’re thinking, “Haven’t I already heard that some
high-ranking official recommended an independent counsel?” you’re right.
Former Justice Department task force supervisor Chuck LaBella
recommended an external investigation. Even the judge that sentenced me
for my involvement in the scandal, Manuel Real, found it suspicious that
no investigator had been appointed.
That’s right: All three of these gentlemen — the FBI director, the
DOJ task force leader and the judge — thought it necessary to have an
independent counsel investigate the huge scandal. But it never
happened.
In the summer of 1996, I agreed to donate $25,000 to O’Leary’s
favorite charity, Africare, at the suggestion of the secretary’s aide
Corlis Moody. The money was to secure a place for China Petro at a
political meeting with O’Leary.
Moody said an invitation letter to China Petro signed by O’Leary
would be sent. Indeed, I received the faxed invitation with O’Leary’s
signature, and I faxed it to a China Petro official.
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Secretary O’Leary at the meeting with China Petro officials.
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Later, an African America gentleman claiming to be an employee of the
Energy Department came to my apartment in D.C. to collect the $25,000
check to Africare. He also said he needed to retrieve the faxed
invitation I had received that morning because the inspector general of
the Energy Department said that it was illegal.
So I gave him the check along with the fax, but I emphasized my
desire to secure the meeting.
After the Chinagate scandal erupted, FBI and DOJ prosecutors asked me
about the O’Leary incident. They showed me a copy of the invitation,
but it had been altered.
“This is not the one I saw before,” I told the agents. They went
back to do some more digging and found the original version.
Nevertheless, Attorney General Janet Reno sent a letter to the U.S.
Appeals Court saying there was no need for an independent counsel to
investigate the bribery. O’Leary knew nothing about my connection to
her close aide Corlis Moody, Reno said. And besides, the invitation
letter had been signed by autopen.
Now, keep in mind I knew nothing about Africare before this
incident. Why would I donate money to an organization I knew nothing
about? All I knew was that I paid for a meeting, and I got it. By the
way, Hazel O’Leary is the director of Africare. Coincidence? I think
not.
The 1996 campaign finance scandal, also referred to as Chinagate, is
about money for political access. It’s about how money can influence
U.S. elections and buy political power. This Justice Department
promised the American people it would turn every stone in order to get
to the truth. High-ranking government officials said they would follow
the money and that they would let the chips fall where they may.
It’s been three years. So far, the chips have all fallen on the
donors — me and 24 other people, none of whom are part of the White
House administration, the Democratic National Committee, or people close
to the president, first lady and vice president. We have become the
poster boys of the Chinagate scandal.
Americans have seen good, professional, career prosecutors and
officials in the Justice Department leave, one-by-one, out of
frustration because their efforts to get to the truth have been stymied
by political appointees. That is a shame.
But they’re not alone in their frustration. Members of both chambers
of Congress are calling this the most unethical White House
administration and Justice Department in America’s history. If you ask
any former attorneys general of the DOJ about honesty and integrity,
they will say there is none in this administration, including the
Justice Department and the first lady’s office — the setting for my
second example of government conspiracies.
The famous LaBella memo mentions an investigation of Hillary Rodham
Clinton’s office. I told LaBella about the $50,000 check I gave to
Maggie Williams — the first lady’s chief of staff — inside Mrs.
Clinton’s White House office. It was money for political access. By
accepting the money, Williams and the first lady are guilty of violating
the Hatch Act.
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First lady Hillary Clinton with Johnny Chung’s Chinese
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Trying to defend his wife, Clinton said at a 1997 press conference
that she merely accepted the money for the DNC. She should have
referred me to the DNC, he told reporters.
But ladies and gentlemen, why would I want to hand my check to the
DNC? I gave the check to the person from whom I was buying political
access.
If you’re going to the movies to see “Mission: Impossible 2,” you
don’t buy a ticket to see “Shanghai Noon.”
I needed to secure my political access in Washington, D.C., because I
frequently entertained Chinese visitors who were valuable to my
business. To impress them, I brought them to the White House. In
order to better facilitate the arrangements, I needed an insider.
In March of 1995, I brought a group of Chinese businessmen to the
White House to meet with the first lady and have their pictures taken in
the oval office. While we were there, an intern named Gina Ratliffe
from the first lady’s office was very friendly to my guests. So, I
hired her as my company’s public relations person while she still worked
in the White House.
Unfortunately, the phrase “White House intern” has such a bad stigma
associated with it now that I feel compelled to clarify this was
strictly a professional relationship. Ms. Ratliffe was not a
Clintonesque intern.
To familiarize her with Chinese customs, I sent Gina to China. After
she returned, she told me she needed to move to an apartment in DuPont
Circle where she could be closer to the White House. She wanted my
company to pay for a year-long lease she had just signed at a cost of
$15,000. We were already paying her a salary — something she didn’t
get from her internship — and she was still employed under a 90-day
probationary period.
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White House intern Gina Ratliffe in China
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It soon became clear that Gina was not as good at her job as she had
promised. Before the probationary period was over, we decided to let
her go and did not pay her apartment lease. Disgruntled, she began
sending my company several letters.
Soon afterwards, I received a phone call from the first lady’s
office. Ms. Evan Ryan, the first lady’s secretary, asked me to come to
the White House.
Once I arrived, Ryan relayed a message: “Maggie Williams said that
if you don’t settle this and pay Gina, this office will no longer
welcome you.” They were going to cut off my White House access.
I asked Ryan why I should pay for the apartment contract, but they
knew I wanted to secure my White House access, and they used this to
threaten me.
So I decided to give the intern an $8,000 check, including
termination documentation prepared by my corporate attorney that she was
to sign and return to my company. I handed copies of the documentation
to Even Ryan to show I had settled the matter.
Later, I found out the check had been cashed, but the termination
papers were never signed nor returned to me. Those White House people
really know how to shake you down.
After reading the LaBella and Freeh memos, I feel angry but
vindicated. I’ve been telling my side of the story all along, and it’s
taken years for the evidence to be released. When I accepted my guilt,
I needed to right a wrong. I needed to tell the truth, and I needed to
help government officials get to the bottom of the scandal.
High-ranking DOJ officials tried to stop every investigation into
people close to the president, the first lady and the vice president.
They stonewalled all the investigations of Chinagate. They replaced all
the FBI agents who knew the case well.
The FBI agents did a good job, and their boss, Louis Freeh, made a
correct decision to recommend an independent counsel. My prosecutor,
Michael McCaul, finished his case well and with my full cooperation,
which included putting my life and the lives of my family on the line.
McCaul’s boss, Chuck LaBella, kept his promise to me by writing a good
and thorough memo recommending an independent counsel. And Federal
Court Judge Manuel Real also believed the case merited an independent
counsel.
But Attorney General Janet Reno said no.
After three years, we all know that no matter how many subpoenas are
issued by Congress, no matter how many people testify on Capitol Hill,
the Justice Department’s response will always be the same — stonewall
the case and sweep everything under the rug.
You — the readers of this column — you decide who was right and
cast your vote at the ballot box this November.
Read Paul Sperry’s report:
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