Time: Fri Jul 25 14:49:52 1997
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Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:58:03 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: "MUTUAL DISGUST WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT" (fwd)
<snip>
>
>With Bipartisan Impatience, Senate Panel Immunizes Buddhist Nuns
>
> By Guy Gugliotta
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Thursday, July 24, 1997; Page
> A09
> The Washington Post
>
> Republicans and Democrats
> holding Senate hearings on
> campaign finances have spent
> much of their time grappling for
> partisan advantage, but yesterday
> their mutual disgust with the
> Justice Department finally
> brought them together.
>
> Ignoring the department's
> opposition, the Governmental
> Affairs Committee voted
> comfortably to grant immunity
> from prosecution to five minor
> figures in the investigation of
> fund-raising abuses in the 1996
> Clinton reelection campaign.
>
> Committee Chairman Fred D.
> Thompson (R-Tenn.) summed up
> the frustration of Republicans
> who have sought for six weeks to
> immunize as many as 18
> witnesses, the vast majority of
> them alleged "straw donors" who
> were given large sums of money
> by third parties to contribute to
> the Democratic National
> Committee.
>
> The committee had tried to
> ensure that the Justice
> Department was not planning to
> prosecute the witnesses,
> Thompson said, but Justice
> refused to make up its mind.
>
> "They have told us they cannot
> tell us whether or not they might
> be [prosecuted] in the future,"
> Thompson said, and this wasn't
> good enough: "I don't think we
> can accede to that kind of
> response in view of our own
> responsibilities."
>
> For the first time, substantial
> numbers of Democrats agreed
> with him. "We are now in an
> impossible position in . . . our
> dealings with the Department of
> Justice," said Sen. Richard J.
> Durbin (D-Ill.). A meeting with
> Justice lawyers Monday "was not
> in any way helpful in terms of
> making this decision."
>
> The committee voted 15 to 1 to
> grant immunity to four Buddhist
> nuns who were reimbursed for
> contributions they made to the
> Democratic National Committee
> at a temple fund-raiser in
> California attended by Vice
> President Gore in April 1996.
>
> The committee also voted 13 to 3
> to grant immunity to Keshi Zhan,
> a Virginia woman allegedly used
> as a "pass-through" donor by
> Democratic fund-raiser Charles
> Yah Lin Trie. The Senate
> committee in late June granted
> immunity to four other low-level
> witnesses when the Justice
> Department did not enter any
> objections.
>
> Efforts to immunize the five
> witnesses had stalled for weeks,
> with Justice Department lawyers
> unable to say whether they might
> prosecute some of them for
> crimes or use the threat of
> prosecution to leverage their
> testimony against others.
>
> A Justice official said last night
> that the department opposed the
> grants of immunity to the five
> prospective witnesses "because
> we want to preserve the right of
> prosecution."
>
> Yesterday's proceedings began
> inauspiciously when Sen. Joseph
> I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who had
> bucked his Democratic
> colleagues in the past to support
> Republican immunity initiatives,
> mentioned that he shared the
> Justice Department's misgivings
> and announced that he would not
> vote for immunity this time.
>
> Immunity "effectively forecloses
> the successful prosecution" of a
> witness, Lieberman said, and the
> witnesses' "value to us is not so
> significant that it justifies what
> this immunity will do to the
> criminal proceedings."
>
> In the committee's recent stormy
> history, a reversal by a former
> ally usually has signaled a major
> misunderstanding and the onset
> of a partisan brawl, but
> Thompson, whose acerbic
> Tennessee drawl has sometimes
> fanned conflagration into bonfire,
> showed restraint.
>
> Tension beset the committee, but
> only briefly. Sen. Carl M. Levin
> (D-Mich.), a fierce partisan, said
> he planned to vote for immunity
> and only wanted to know whether
> the committee could rescind it if
> Justice came up with better
> reasons.
>
> Yes, said Thompson, and the
> tension deflated.
>
> ) Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
>
>
>-> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com
>-> Posted by: kalliste@aci.net (J. Orlin Grabbe)
>
>
>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
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