Burton in the Snake Pit
Corry, John
N BY JOHN CORRY S hady real estate deals or fraudulent loans by Madison Guaranty drown in complex detail. They are the crimes of accountants and lawyers. The selling of foreign policy or national...
...For a serious investigation you must look to Dan Burton...
...He represented it from 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to the end of last year...
...In fact, Siegel has contributed to Republicans, but that's not what's interesting...
...Consequently it is hard to know who is in charge...
...According to White House press secretary Mike McCurry, Davis did not know about the shakedown...
...In his leaked, and suspect, memo, Siegel claims that this "went over any ethical or legal line...
...The media will call this bipartisanship, and comity may reign, but a serious investigation will be impeded...
...22 June 1997 The American Spectator Oversight Chairman Dan Burton isn't a card-carrying member ot the Washington establishment...
...position of all, has been vacant for nearly two years...
...D avis is thus in a delicate position...
...When Mrs...
...As a lobbyist Siegel has worked for Aruba and, for a while, the Maldives, although his big client has been Pakistan...
...On the other hand, the Justice Department has become so thoroughly politicized that an attempt to get Burton, even to indict him, could happen on its own...
...C onsider now the chain of events, and descend into the netherworld of Washington politics...
...As time drew near for him to begin investigating the White House, the press began to look for a dark side...
...The campaign against Burton makes it easier for the White House to resist his investigation...
...The man from the 4th congressional district was defeating them...
...The press was invoking moral equivalence...
...The part about Burton attempting to "interfere with my livelihood," though, was troubling...
...politicians conduct themselves...
...Burton is one of those pests who means it when he says he wants to get to the bottom of things...
...Congressmen often ask lobbyists to raise money...
...It said the Pakistani embassy in Washington had never seen a memo similar to the one described in the Post, and neither had anyone in Karachi...
...The committee's work is too important for it to be tainted by allegations of corruption against its leading member," said Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen...
...If Burton had the audacity to raise questions about Vince Foster, and was willing to stage backyard shootings to resolve them, there was no telling what he might do about things like that...
...Even from the beginning, the memo had not passed what might be called the smell test...
...In mid-April Burton subpoenaed documents on John Huang and the Riadys...
...The assault on Burton had grown beyond all reason...
...No one has ever dared to threaten me into contributing money, and no one has ever followed through on such threats by contacting one of my clients...
...The Post admitted that it had gotten the memo from "a Democratic source in Congress" — Richard Gephardt's office, actually—and it forthrightly identified Siegel as a "longtime Democratic activist...
...All eleven organizations would not be subpoenaed, but the Republican National Committee would be asked to turn over records of its dealings with the eleven organizations to the Senate committee...
...Fair play and good government demand that the Democrats be allowed their say, but practical politics means they will see an opportunity for partisan gain...
...What if Burton were to be indicted...
...The Post was giving moral equivalence a bad name...
...It seems to remain above the fray...
...After the Pakistani president dismissed Mrs...
...It is also dated July 25, 1996, and it says: "We were distressed to know from the Embassy that Congressman Dan Burton says that you were unable to keep certain promises regarding fund raising for his election and that you are also very unhelpful in other matters...
...This was no scandal, but no matter...
...Recall just a few that received less attention in the media than they should have, but fall into areas in which Burton is interested: • A Florida businessman with major holdings in Paraguay escorted a Paraguayan official to a White House coffee...
...Many key positions there are still vacant, while others are filled by White House castaways, and the ailing Janet Reno looks out over the shambles...
...The court also said, very sensibly, that "agreeing to support legislation in return for contributions is entirely different from granting or denying access...
...He was also on the staff of the Carter White House...
...Sure...
...The FBI investigation had been authorized within 2.4 hours after the story was published, and the grand jury appearances came along less than two weeks later...
...So much so that you are no longer 'persona grata' in his office...
...What matters is whether he has been bought...
...The memo said Burton had been "abusive and threatening," and that he had told Siegel he would make sure that "none of his friends or colleagues" would ever meet again with him or anyone from his office...
...I would welcome your comments for onward transmission to the P.M...
...morning after he died...
...Siegel has produced a faxed message from Mrs...
...The Justice Department hardly ever moves that quickly, but obviously a congeries of Democratic interests had come together...
...The Justice Department is supposed to be immune to political pressure, and often in other administrations it has been immune, but moral rot from this White House spreads through the executive branch...
...Did he write it when he said he did, or did he conjure it up for the Post eight months later...
...That meant, the memo said, that Burton has "obviously attempted to interfere with my livelihood...
...Sometimes the congressmen use threats, and sometimes they do not, but the general rule is no one talks about it, or at least not in public places...
...Critic of White House Ethics Let AT&T Give Him Favors," the headline said, suggesting something scandalous...
...But if he does, the memo might look like a put-up job, created by two slippery hacks to undermine Burton...
...The standards of Indiana's 6th congressional district, however, are different...
...Had the congressman ever cheated, strayed, or otherwise misbehaved...
...The FBI began a preliminary inquiry the next day, and it interviewed Siegel five days later...
...The Boggs is Tommy Boggs, son of the late Hale Boggs, whose Louisiana congressional seat was taken over at his death by his widow, Tommy's mother, who now has been nominated by the administration to be ambassador to the Vatican...
...By contrast, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also investigating campaign funding practices, has a patina that official Washington and the best media circles admire...
...Three days later the Post reported that, according to "federal law enforcement sources," Burton might have violated something called the Hobbs Act...
...Emanuel is the former ballet dancer and political fundraiser who handles White House liaison with Justice, and cultivates a reputation as a resident tough guy...
...Lifting drug sanctions, say, or providing access to secret information in exchange for campaign donations has a certain clarity about it...
...Bhutto's secretary, Zafir Hilaly...
...Eric Holder, the U.S attorney for the District of Columbia, has been nominated for deputy attorney general, the No...
...It sounded like legalese, or a hint as to how Burton might be made to take the fall, possibly because he had violated the Hobbs Act...
...N onetheless, even if the Justice Depa tment should drop its inquiry, Siegel's memo will have done its job...
...sanctions for drug smuggling...
...But the front page of the Washington Post is a very public place, of course...
...Worse, he might get caught...
...Usually when the administration is subpoenaed for documents it simply stonewalls—William Clinger, Burton's predecessor as committee chairman, knew all about that—but it seems that this time a stronger response was needed...
...Closely examine, or deeply intrude, on anyone's life and you are sure to find something that will embarrass him, but the odd thing was that as hard as they tried, the privileged children of the media were not finding very much...
...After Huang left Commerce, where he had been deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy, he raised more than $1.5 million in illegal foreign contributions for the Democratic National Committee...
...Moreover, an aide to Burton had admitted that Burton once asked Siegel to raise $5,000 in campaign funds from Pakistani-Americans, and then complained to Pakistan's ambassador when Siegel failed to do it...
...Three weeks after the Post story, an op-ed piece by Husain Haqqani, Mrs...
...Burton is a persistent man...
...The press was seeking out his former staffers, current and past contributors, and even old friends and neighbors...
...There is no dispute about that memo...
...He is Al Gore's brother-in-law...
...And on and on, with other subjects of possible interest to Burton including, but not limited to, Lippo, the Riadys and John Huang...
...It reported at the top of page one that an American lobbyist for Pakistan had complained to the Pakistani government that Burton had pressed him for campaign contributions, and then retaliated when he failed to deliver...
...McCurry has been Davis's mouthpiece in this...
...27...
...He would not even have to be convicted...
...The mindless media coverage provides cover for the campaign against Burton...
...Its acting head is John Keeney, a career official for more than forty years, whose son is John Huang's attorney...
...Burton is no Beltway smarty...
...For one thing, Davis and Siegel are old pals, with a relationship going back years...
...Burton and Siegel speak through lawyers...
...Sometimes he seems bewildered too...
...He told the senators that when Carter and Saudi King Khalid had met in Riyadh earlier in the year, From the beginning the Siegel memo had not passed what might be called the smell test...
...T he Times story, however, was only a hatchet job...
...And if he was going to pass the damaging memo on to Gephardt, who then would slip it to the Post, he certainly would have told Davis, wouldn't he...
...The selling of foreign policy or national security interests, however, is easily grasped...
...Things being what they are, he would like to vouch for Siegel...
...Bhutto's former press secretary, appeared in the Wall Street Journal...
...Burton also demonstrated what the press considered loony behavior when he proposed that everyone be tested for AIDS...
...The years correspond with Benazir Bhutto's terms as prime minister...
...It seems likely, though, that the accusations against Burton by lobbyist Siegel attracted attention so quickly because the White House intervened...
...Obviously Davis has a problem...
...Then he gave $5o,000 to the Democratic National Committee, and then he gave $i.00,000 more, while his company made two donations of $175,000 apiece...
...The harbinger for this came early in March, in a Sunday front-page story in the New York Times...
...Shortly afterwards the administration ended its opposition to sibling preference...
...The White House still had to be protected...
...He is polite and even deferential to the people on his staff, including the ones who seem bewildered at finding themselves in Washington...
...When Democrats on the committee wanted to subpoena the records of eleven tax-exempt conservative organizations—the Christian Coalition and National Right to Life Committee, among them— a compromise was reached...
...Would he continue to do so...
...The speed with which this all took place was astonishing...
...While the senators were still arguing about the conservative organizations, he already had issued ioi subpoenas...
...He reads the Bible, and finds comfort in the Psalms...
...The timing, the wording, and the lack of corroboration had not felt right...
...If Siegel was so upset by Burton's high-handedness—in twenty-five years, remember, he had "never been shaken down" that way before—he surely mentioned it to Davis, didn't he...
...It decided that he should not criticize Democratic fundraising improprieties...
...Buddhist temples and impoverished nuns who write large checks...
...Burton's bellyaching over Siegel, it said in an agitated editorial, gives "credence to the possibility that his actions violated the federal Hobbs Act, which prohibits lawmakers from extorting lobbyists and others for campaign money...
...There is, however, an assistant attorney general in the civil division, Frank Hunger...
...Burton is a heartland man, and it shows...
...Confusion between the vaguely sleazy and the truly intolerable vanishes...
...Burton is convinced that Foster did not die in Fort Marcy Park, and he once fired a pistol in his own backyard in an attempt to prove that if Foster had ended his life where he supposedly ended it, the gunshot would have been heard in the nearby Saudi Embassy...
...Bhutto's government in 1990, Siegel put out a press release condemning the president even though he was still on Pakistan's payroll...
...The press has had a head start...
...The New York Times says its chairman, Fred Thompson, "has developed the reputation of being one of the least partisan and doctrinaire Republicans...
...The dispute is about the memo that Siegel says he sent to Hilaly in return...
...Burton is reliably reported to have engaged in fund-raising practices that match in egregiousness the ones for which the administration is to be investigated...
...Nobody really knew...
...I should tell you," the lobbyist, Mark A. Siegel, supposedly wrote in a memo to an aide to then—Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, "that I worked in Washington for over 25 years and have never been shaken down by anyone before like Dan Burton's threats...
...Bhutto returned to power in 1993, Siegel returned, too, although his firm, International Public Strategies, shared the lobbying duties with other firms...
...There is another facThe American Spectator • .June 1997 tor, too...
...The Times used his muddy quote about Burton playing "the influence-money game himself...
...Has he sold his vote, or changed his position—in Burton's case on Pakistan—for money...
...How indeed, but by then it didn't matter...
...The Justice Department is a casualty...
...z position, but the associate attorney general post, once held by Webb Hubbell, is vacant...
...In other words, a congressman does not have to meet with a lobbyist if he does not choose to, and if he wants to he can even be rude...
...he did not know there would be a story in the Post, either...
...How did Siegel know Burton was calling from his office, and why was he mentioning it...
...As chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, he is investigating White House fundraising practices, and he could find evidence that finally finishes off the administration, and damages the Democrats for years...
...No instructions would be needed...
...The Times reported that in January Burton had played in a golf tournament in California that had been sponsored by AT&T...
...Siegel had "confirmed" the "authenticity" of the memo in an interview...
...The "acting" solicitor genThe American Spectator • June 1997 25 eral is Walter Dellinger, once the White House deputy counsel...
...Had he ever been nasty, rude or abusive...
...With Mr...
...Moderate Republicans, fearful of looking partisan and terrified they might hear the words "witch hunt," had insisted that his committee investigate both Republican and Democratic fundraising practices, and Burton had said the committee would, but it seemed unlikely his conservative heart would be in it...
...Meanwhile, the position of assistant attorney general in the criminal division, the most important assistant AG...
...Because his son represents Huang, Keeney recuses himself from the Lippo investigations (and others...
...Siegel has asserted that because he did not raise campaign funds for Burton, Burton said he would no longer meet with him...
...One was the Washington powerhouse Patton, Boggs & Blow...
...Also, It seems likely that the accusations against Burton by lobbyist Siegel attracted attention so quickly because the White House's Rahm Emanuel intervened...
...On ABC's "World News Sunday," anchor Carole Simpson began her report on the Times story this way: "The head of the House committee looking into Democratic fundraising is defending his own fund-raising today...
...and for another, they worked on the Pakistani account together...
...Patton, Boggs signed a contract with Pakistan in November 1994 stating it "will closely coordinate its activities with International Public Strategies Inc., subject to the overall supervision of the ambassador of Pakistan to the United States...
...Lanny Davis, then a partner in the firm, signed for Patton, Boggs...
...it said he had committed improprieties, too...
...Well, apparently not...
...Rahm Emanuel probably called Janet Reno...
...Clinton appointed two major donors to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board...
...The Post, it seemed, had nailed Burton fairly and squarely, and although there was some ambiguity about what it had nailed him for—rudeness to lobbyists, perhaps—that would soon be remedied...
...Everyone in Washington knows one another...
...Why did the Secret Service make off with his pager, and why were his car keys not found when the police first went through his pockets, and why was Craig Livingstone parked outside his house the JOHN CORRY is The American Spectator's senior correspondent...
...A sometime Democratic Party official who has dealt with him over the years describes him as "a nosy, gossipy old woman...
...Even if Burton had leaned on a lobbyist, that hardly matched in egregiousness the fundraising practices he wanted to investigate...
...I certainly don't want to involve the Prime Minister in this situation...
...He is big and bluff, and looks like a well-groomed church elder, or perhaps the president of a medium-sized bank...
...Burton Should Step Aside" — that said: "Rep...
...On the other hand, if he were to losehis committee chairmanship this would no longer matter...
...Meanwhile, the FBI had begun an investigation, and scheduled an interview with Siegel to ask him about his allegations...
...Johnny Chung, Pauline Kanchanalak and Charlie Trie...
...So now that he holds the fate of Bill Clinton in his hands, it feels entitled to destroy him...
...The connection to Burton is tenuous...
...Imagine him unleashed on the White House, even though in Washington's best media circles his kind of persistence is frowned upon...
...On April 2, Siegel and two people from his lobbying firm appeared before a grand jury...
...The timing, the wording, and the lack of corroboration had not felt right, and the idea that a Washington lobbyist would complain that way about a congressman required a suspension of disbelief...
...No one may pay attention to Bonior, but Naderite Claybrook is a PBS favorite...
...Siegel is a man who likes to be heard...
...The allegations by the lobbyist, Mark Siegel, appeared in the Post on March 19...
...The ambassador, Maleeha Lodhi, signed the contract for Pakistan...
...Patronizing Burton is one thing, though, and accusing him is another...
...Its members have access to all categories of secret intelligence, although neither of the two donors— $47,000 from the one and $115,000 from the other, according to the Washington Times—had any foreign policy or intelligence experience...
...He received more than loo classified intelligence briefings while at Commerce, and he often called the Lippo Group, his former employer, and the Chinese ambassador after he received them...
...Perhaps it was because it is illegal for a congressman to make fund-raising calls from his office, and Siegel just decided to stick it in there as another possible Burton violation...
...Yet if a memo from Pakistan's lobbyist was not seen by the prime minister, her principal secretary or her ambassador," it asked, "how are we to be sure it was ever sent...
...Siegel had his reasons...
...Dan Burton can no longer credibly serve as chairman of the House investigation of Clinton administration fund-raising in last year's campaign...
...The day after the Post had run the story about Siegel's allegations it published an editorial—"Mr...
...Indeed, his loyally seemed to be more to her than to Pakistan...
...But Burton, an avid golfer, and once the high-school champion of Indiana, had paid his own way to the tournament, and by "favors" the Times meant that AT&T had allowed him to play and also given him a fundraising dinner...
...Say now that the charges against Burton are a crock, and that the "federal law enforcement sources" the Washington Post had quoted were showing some imagination when they said he might have violated the Hobbs Act...
...No one, not the Justice Department, or the Times or the Post, or even lobbyist Siegel has suggested that Burton ever did...
...If Davis says he knew about the memo when Siegel wrote it, allegedly on July 25, 1996, he might be committing perjury...
...Burton leading the investigation, it will have no credibility at all," said David Bonior, the Democratic House whip...
...In a 1992 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that "granting or denying access to lobbyists based on levels of campaign contributions is not...and cannot, by itself, form basis of charge of extortion or attempted extortion under Hobbs Act...
...The New York Times agreed...
...24 June 1997 • The American Spectator Senate rules are different from House rules, and subpoenas are negotiated...
...He had known her for years, and when she first ran for prime minister he had worked for her pro bono...
...The 1934 Hobbs Act—or "An Act to protect trade and commerce against interference by violence, threats, coercion, or intimidation," to give it its full name—is an anti-racketeering statute, used mostly in labor disputes and battles over public con-tracts...
...The White House opposed "sibling preference," the policy that would allow the foreign-born brothers and sisters of naturalized citizens to immigrate to the U.S...
...That last touch was nice: Siegel sticking up for the good old USA, and then showing concern for his patron...
...Most of the press finds it distasteful even to ask, and while Burton's tactics may be irregular, he has been more dogged in pursuit of the truth than his critics...
...Burton is usually characterized as a loose cannon, or, as Time magazine's Margaret Carlson described him in her breezy way on CNN's "Capital Gang," "flaky and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy...
...Two weeks later, on the day before the House was to vote on funding for Burton's committee, the Washington Post perpetrated a mugging...
...She gave him the contracts, and when she was dismissed from office —with corruption charges against her government both times — he lost them...
...Without her patronage he was out of a job...
...The "acting" head of the Office of Legal Counsel is Beth Nolan, who once worked in Vince Foster's office...
...26 June 1997 • The American Spectator Khalid had used "economic blackmail" to get the jets...
...Powell called Siegel's charges "total fabrications," and pointed out that Siegel had not been at the meeting between Khalid and Carter...
...Tommy's sister is Cokie Roberts of ABC, who is married to the journalist Steve Roberts...
...But consider some of the unanswered questions about Foster's death...
...He also can block subpoenas the Democrats might want to issue on their own...
...The "acting" assistant attorney general in the antitrust division is Joel Klein, once an official in the White House counsel's office...
...Davis is now White House special counsel, and his only duty is to protect the Clintons against the media, Kenneth Starr, and whomever, this last being a category that includes Dan Burton...
...Despite the prominence it gave the story, the only person the Times could find who thought Burton might have done The American Spectator • June 1997 23 anything unseemly was Fred Wertheimer, the old Common Cause nudge, and even he was vague...
...So much, then, for the Hobbs Act...
...A more compliant congressman may then step in to replace him...
...Pat Robertson or Ralph Reed will get their attention more easily than the Chinese arms dealer who visited the White House...
...Exactly what Burton had to be defensive about, though, was unclear...
...But then an Asian-American fundraising dinner brought in $4.1 million, and Clinton was told that sibling preference was the "top priority" of the contributors...
...Any number of people do not want him to do this, and so he must be discredited...
...In a way, the press characterizations were right: Burton is a loose cannon, and under House rules he does not, as chairman of the committee, need the approval of the Democratic minority when he issues subpoenas...
...Siegel is a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee...
...Press and politicians have joined hands...
...Well, no, not really...
...The memo concluded: "Despite what you may see in the movies, this isn't the way most U.S...
...This is most upsetting as he is a good friend of Pakistan...
...In the midst of this gift-giving the White House issued a waiver to Paraguay canceling U.S...
...It has treated Burton as an eccentric ever since he raised questions about the death of Vincent Foster...
...He is married, and has three children...
...Indeed the story seemed to be a model of objective reporting...
...This makes Dan Burton a dangerous man...
...The Washington Post mentioned the letter at the time, along with press secretary Jody Powell's response...
...Under House rules, a member under indictment must give up his chairmanship...
...He left to protest the sale of F-15 jets to Saudi Arabia, and later wrote a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about it...
...This will allow the Democrats to look for any campaign cooperation between the Republican Party and the tax-exempt conservative groups that might have violated federal law...
...Judged by Beltway standards, he acts inappropriately...
...political influences on the NSC and CIA, and security clearances for people who never should have gotten them...
...Few in the press seemed to care, though, and the contrast between the lack of interest in this and the excitement over the Siegel memo was revealing...
...It should also be noted that the memo says, "As I explained to Congressman Burton when he called me over the phone from his office, I am a Democrat who does not contribute to Republican campaigns or committees...
...Huang, of course, is the former Commerce Department official now under investigation...
...The deadline for compliance came and went, but the White House failed to release the documents...
Vol. 30 • June 1997 • No. 6
