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Senate Committee Reveals Potential Witnesses

Thirty names are on the subpoena list, hearings to start Tuesday

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, July 3) -- The Senate committee investigating alleged campaign fund-raising abuses has finally issued a list of witnesses it will call when its public hearings begin next Tuesday.

During the first week of hearings, the Governmental Affairs Committee will hear mostly from past and present officials of the White House and the Democratic National Committee.

People who have been subpoenaed include Clinton advisor Bruce Lindsey; Maggie Williams, chief of staff to first lady Hillary Clinton; former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes; Democratic National Committee (DNC) lawyer Joseph Sandler; former DNC Chairman Don Fowler; and former DNC finance director Marvin Rosen.

Slated to testify the week of July 15 are a number of Asian or Asian-American contributors to the Democratic Party, several of whom are connected to one of the key figures in the fund-raising scandal, former Democratic fund-raiser John Huang.

Also scheduled to testify the week of July 15 are other Huang associates, including his former boss at the Commerce Department and an official of the Lippo Bank.

Huang so far has declined to cooperate with investigators, and he was not on the list of potential witnesses. A committee source told The Associated Press that if Huang asserts his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, he may be asked to do so on camera.

There will be no testimony on Tuesday; senators will make opening statements then, with the first appearances by witnesses on Wednesday. In all, 30 names were on the subpoena list of potential witnesses released by the committee on Wednesday. The committee plans to meet through July, recess in August and resume in September.

A Democratic source close to the investigation complained the witness list was inadequate. He said Democrats wanted the general area of questioning envisioned for the witnesses, as well as the specific dates those witnesses are expected to appear. But the list includes only the names of the witnesses and the weeks in which they are expected to appear.

"It's the same old thing," the Democratic source said, referring to partisanship that he claimed has marked the committee's work so far. "It's getting really tiresome. Our attorneys are screaming. A letter will go back asking for elucidation."