Immunity Issue Raised As Senate Readies for Campaign Hearings

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, July 6) -- With Senate hearings into 1996 campaign finance irregularities set to begin Tuesday, there were new indications Sunday that two men at the center of the controversy could be given immunity in exchange for telling what they know.

John Huang and Charlie Trie, who raised millions of dollars for the Democratic Party during the 1996 campaign, are reluctant participants in the Senate hearings. Trie has fled to China; Huang plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

But Sunday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and House Speaker Newt Gingrich both indicated that an immunity deal may be desirable to get Huang and Trie to tell what they know about the sources of the money they raised for the Democrats.

Speaking of Huang, Specter said, "He could turn state's evidence. He could be immunized if he's prepared to talk."

"And I think if someone on the inside talks -- and I have had some experience with that as a district attorney -- that down the road there could be some explosive materials."

Gingrich, speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation," said the Clinton administration needs to make "serious efforts" to get Trie back from China. But he conceded it may be necessary to use immunity to get to the bottom of the questions about campaign fund raising.

"Sooner or later, I think that the public's right to know is more important than whether or not these people go to jail," Gingrich said.

Sen. Fred Thompson, the Tennessee Republican who, as chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, will run the hearings, said Sunday that four witnesses -- which he didn't identify -- have been granted immunity by the Justice Department to testify.

But speaking on ABC's "This Week," Thompson said the Justice Department has been dragging its feet on approving other immunity requests.

"If we get too much of that, we'll go before the American people and the United States Senate and suggest we need an extension (in the hearings.) And those same people, I'm sure, would not want an extension," Thompson said.

Republicans and Democrats agreed in advance that Thompson's hearings would conclude by the end of the year.

Thompson also said he sent a letter last week to Secretary of State Madeline Albright asking for assistance in bringing witnesses who have left the country back to Washington to testify.

"I'd rather not detail exactly what we have asked for," Thompson said.

Nearly 200 people have already been subpoenaed to testify at the hearings, and Thompson says he expects that an additional, undetermined number of witnesses will also be subpoenaed.

While both Republican and Democratic fund-raising efforts will be examined during the summer-long investigation, the initial thrust of the probe will be an examination of possible links between Democratic campaign cash and China.

Questions to be answered include whether the Chinese government poured money into Democratic coffers to influence the 1996 elections and whether that money may have been laundered by Asian fund-raisers such as Huang and Trie.