A key congressman says electronic intercepts confirm that former Clin-ton administration official and Democratic fund-raiser John Huang "committed economic espionage" by passing government secrets to his Asian-based former employer.
House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., said he confirmed with government officials that the intercepts substantiated that Huang passed classified information to the Lippo Group, which is based in Indonesia but has substantial dealings with China.Solomon said he was seeking a "damage assessment" from the FBI.
Huang, who has emerged as a central figure in the growing investigation into political fund-raising abuses, had access to top-secret information as a political appointee at the Commerce Department in 1994 and 1995. He left last year, with President Clinton's blessing, to raise money for the Democratic Party.
"I have received reports from government sources that say there are electronic intercepts which provide evidence confirming what I suspected all along, that John Huang committed economic espionage and breached our national security by passing classified information to his former employer, the Lippo Group," Solomon said in a statement Wednesday night.
Solomon did not specify which government agency confirmed or possessed the intercepts or what they reveal. "I can't go further than that," his statement said.
Telephone calls to the office of Huang's attorney, Ty Cobb, were not answered. But in the past, Huang has broadly denied wrongdoing.
Huang has been under investigation since disclosures that his calendars and phone records indicated he had contact with his former Lippo employer or Chinese Embassy officials in close proximity to days in which he received classified information as a deputy assistant commerce secretary.
Among the classified material Huang had access to was at least one briefing on China and another involving a sensitive power-plant project in Taiwan.
In addition, Democratic Party officials have decided to return hundreds of thousands of dollars Huang raised last year because of concerns the money came from foreign or other improper sources.
Commerce officials have previously confirmed that Huang attended 109 meetings at which classified information may have been discussed, including 37 intelligence briefings. Huang had a top-secret security clearance while in government.
The Justice Department, the Commerce Department inspector general and Congress have been investigating whether Huang assisted China or Lippo or sought to bring illegal foreign money into U.S. elections. Solomon has led the House's inquiry into Huang's intelligence access.
In a letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh earlier this week, Solomon also disclosed that Huang "may have had even more exposure to classified information than we had previously known."
That access included "classified information at the White House" and "State Department message traffic through a computer network at the Commerce Department."
Solomon's letter asked Freeh "if there is a damage assessment under way to determine how serious America's national security was compromised."
Huang has declined to provide certain documents to congressional investigators, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Huang served as deputy assistant secretary at commerce for 18 months before leaving to become the Democratic Party's chief fund-raiser in the Asian-American community in 1996 - a job that landed him in the middle of the current controversy.
The Democratic Party has said it will return about $3 million in donations - more than half of it raised or donated by Huang.
Before joining Commerce, Huang was the chief of U.S. operations for Lippo.