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Thompson: Democrats 'Stonewalling' Funds Probe

Senate committee to vote Thursday on extension of immunity to witnesses

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 11) -- Sen. Fred Thompson, the Tennessee Republican chairing the Senate investigation of campaign fund-raising practices, is complaining that the Democratic Party has willfully obstructed his probe.

The chairman fired off a letter Tuesday to Democratic National Committee chairman Roy Romer, charging that DNC lawyers have been blocking the questioning of witnesses "in what seems to be a very calculated and selective process."

Thompson said DNC General Counsel Joseph Sandler, under questioning, had invoked a form of attorney-client privilege known as "common- interest" or "common defense" privilege to avoid answering questions about conversations he had with White House lawyers.

"The DNC should think long and hard before relying on frivolous privilege grounds to block the facts from the American public," Thompson wrote Romer, also noting the DNC had failed to provide all subpoenaed documents related to controversial fund-raiser John Huang.

DNC officials disclosed that Sandler did not coordinate his privilege claims with the Clinton Administration, and attorney Lanny J. Davis told The Associated Press that "the White House has not asserted a common-interest privilege with the DNC and does not anticipate an occasion for doing so in the future."

Reacting to Thompson's letter, DNC spokesman Steve Langdon said it "eliminates any remaining pretense of bipartisanship, fairness or professionalism and underscores the intent of the Republicans to use the investigation as a raw partisan exercise to harass and injure the Democratic Party."

Meanwhile, Thompson's committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to offer immunity to about a dozen witnesses in exchange for their testimony. The committee is expected to release those names today.