Yes, I meant ‘harassment’

Tuesday night, I made an appearance on Fox News Channel’s show
Hannity & Colmes to talk about the

fund-raising letter sent to me by
Al Gore’s campaign manager, Donna Brazile. During the interview, I expressed my belief that the letter is a form of harassment — an accusation met with ridicule by host Alan Colmes.

Mr. Colmes asked me if I really meant that I felt “harassed.” And after the live interview, I received e-mails from some of you wanting to know exactly what I meant by my statement. Unfortunately, today’s media culture and sound-bite society make it very difficult to have thorough discussions about complicated subjects, especially in a 10-minute television segment. So, let me take this opportunity to explain.

There’s much more to this than “overlooked” fund-raising letters — even more than I can fit in a series of columns. The letter was just another piece to a very large puzzle, which, when fully assembled, forms a picture of corruption.

The same week I received Gore’s solicitation, I received notice from the general counsel of the Federal Elections Commission that the agency is bringing a civil lawsuit against me — they are seeking a huge fine.

For the last year, the FEC has asked me time and time again for information. Legally, they can ask me for any information, and I always answer them. But with every request, especially with this last notice, this administration puts more weight on my shoulders to motivate me to remain silent.

You see, I pleaded guilty to using conduits for political donations, tax evasion and bank fraud in 1998. I made a mistake, which is why I am paying a severe punishment.

I made two illegal political contributions. Once, in the summer of 1996, I donated money to the Clinton-Gore 1996 campaign committee. I took 18 Chinese businessmen, along with my family and some employees, to a fund-raising party. At first, I wrote a $25,000 check to the DNC and handed it over to Karen Sternfeld, as usual. She only told me I needed to give them 25 separate $1,000 checks. She did not tell me why, and she held onto my $25,000 check.

The next day, she returned the check and demanded 25 separate ones. I tried to keep a good relationship with the DNC to keep my access open. That’s why I asked my employees and others to each write a check for $1,000, and I reimbursed them.

Another instance was when I hosted a fund-raising event in the fall of 1996 for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a possible running-mate for Vice President Gore. In front of Kerry’s fund-raiser — and several other key Democrat fund-raisers, including the DNC’s chief finance director Richard Sullivan and Karen Sternfeld — I reimbursed my company shareholder, Mr. Lee, for his check of $2,000.

They all acted as though they didn’t see anything related to the transaction, despite the fact that we were sitting together at the same round table — and I have a picture to prove it.

These professional fund-raisers, who know campaign finance laws inside and out, never once tried to stop me. Why aren’t they paying a price for their actions? They watched me reimburse my associates, and then they took the money.

I now know that practice is against the law, and I am paying the price for it.

I worked so hard to build AISI, my fax-broadcasting service. I invited many businessmen, including some from China, to invest in my company. Some of them bought my personal holdings in the company, and, of course, they bought from other shareholders as well. I did not report as income the sales of my personal holdings.

As a result, I owe a total of $320,000 in back taxes to the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board, both of which have put liens on all my property. And to add insult to injury, this month my tax attorney wished me good luck and then quit because I couldn’t afford to pay him.

According to the law, every American citizen has the right to offer a compromise deal to the IRS and the FTB if they are broke. Well folks, I am broke, and I’ve been trying to negotiate an offer of compromise to meet the government’s demands. I’ve given these agencies all the information they have asked for in drafting the compromise, but years later, they are still stalling.

All the while, I have refused to file for bankruptcy. My wife and I believe that, as Christians, we must pay for our mistakes. We will not take the easy way out. I will pay back every penny I owe, and I will not lie.

Now, the Federal Election Commission wants me to admit to a crime I never committed: illegal foreign campaign contributions. During the Chinagate investigation, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the IRS all dug into my finances and came to the same conclusion: The moneys I received were part of my business, not foreign conduit donations.

For that reason, my attorney is arguing with the FEC. This government agency is saying if I plead guilty and immediately pay a big fine, then the case will go away. Even if I did agree to perjure myself, I couldn’t pay what they demand. They are putting a heavy burden on my shoulders to take the blame. I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t. Is this politically motivated or what?

When I decided to cooperate with U.S. government officials in the investigation, a representative of the Chinese mafia, Peter Chang, was sent to me by the Chinese government to harass me. He threatened to kill my family if I didn’t pay him. So I did — I gave him four $50,000 checks.

Chinagate was public, and this mafia thug was on the run, hunted by the FBI and congressional investigators. In order to pay him, I used false information to secure a loan with my house as collateral. I used the loan money to pay Chang.

The money I gave the Clintons and the DNC was of my own accord. I did it because I wanted access to impress my investors. I thought it was a sweet deal, but obviously, I was wrong.

Now I am facing a lawsuit by the FEC, unless I agree to a deal that says I was a conduit for illegal campaign contributions. If I agree to the deal, I am essentially saying that I lied in my testimony to Congress. But I did not lie!

I went to the U.S. Congress twice to tell them everything I know — the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth — without immunity. All the other 121 witnesses had taken the Fifth and fled the country. That’s why, when I finished my testimony, I said to Chairman Dan Burton, “One down, 121 to go.”

The FEC and others in this administration now say I lied during my testimony. Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman even wrote a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno saying that I had lied in the hearing and should be charged with perjury.

I did not lie. Apparently, the FEC does not believe I have suffered enough.

I have not kept my mouth shut, so the Democrats in this administration are trying to destroy me. They use people like Julian Epstein, Democrat counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, to go on television and call me a liar. They use government power to try to put me in jail for things I didn’t do. They sue me in order to bleed me dry of every last cent so that I can’t even put food on the table.

And just when the notice of the lawsuit comes to my home, so does Vice President Gore’s fund-raising letter. This is not a new tactic — it’s the age-old strategy of mind games, and Al Gore is the master.

Listen, as I said in the Hannity & Colmes interview, you can fool me once, but you can’t fool me twice with the same “mistake.” Asking for money from the man who is, even now, working off his punishment for violations of campaign finance laws and who has been

writing
columns about his first-hand experience with the money-grubbing tactics of the DNC and the vice president is at least a little suspicious.

Just coincidence, you say? The timing of that letter was no more coincidental than the audits performed on dozens of non-profit organizations that have been critical of this administration, including Western Journalism Center, founded by Joseph Farah, who also founded WorldNetDaily.

Other Clinton-Gore critics have been audited as well, including Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and radio talk show hosts George Putnam in Los Angeles and Mancow in Chicago.

Yes, I did mean “harassment.”

I have held back for so long, even in my columns with WorldNetDaily, from saying exactly how I feel about the government’s actions against me. I’ve been waiting to see when my cooperation with government agencies would bring their actions to a conclusion. But it’s clear to me now that they are not going to stop, no matter how much I cooperate. They just want me to stop talking.

Well, folks, that’s not going to happen.

I have something to say to this administration, and particularly to Al Gore:

You can take away everything I own, you can bankrupt me and trash my reputation, but you cannot take away the truth. With God’s help, I will hold onto truth until my very last breath, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that.

I may be losing my livelihood, but at least I still have my integrity. That’s more than I can say for you.