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From The Post Reno Extends Investigation of Casino Rejection (Nov. 14) FBI Had Overlooked Key Files in Probe of Chinese Influence (Nov. 14) Chung Visits Described as 'Nuisance' By Edward Walsh Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 14, 1997; Page A16 Johnny Chung was missing, but the California businessman, once described by a National Security Council aide as a "hustler" who should be treated with "a pinch of suspicion," was the focus of attention yesterday at a House hearing on campaign financing abuses in the 1996 election cycle. The main witness at yesterday's House Government Reform and Oversight Committee inquiry was Margaret A. Williams, former chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in 1995 was handed a $50,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee by Chung in her office in the White House complex. The donation is part of the $366,000 in Chung donations that have been returned by the DNC. Williams, who now lives in Paris, testified that she did not solicit the contribution, which she said she immediately forwarded to the DNC, and that she played no role in arranging for Chung and six Chinese businessmen to attend President Clinton's weekly radio address two days later. She also provided a vivid portrait of Chung as a persistent and at times annoying presence in her office whose "enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton bordered on the worshipful." Chung is among the many figures in the campaign financing investigation who have said they will invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than testify. But yesterday the first sign came that Chung is ready to talk about some aspects of his political activity. He was scheduled to arrive in Washington yesterday and to give a deposition to committee members and investigators in a closed session this morning. Richard Bennett, the committee's chief Republican counsel, said Chung's lawyer "believes he is anxious to provide some information." Bennett said he and Chung's lawyer, Brian Sun, would establish areas where Chung is willing to provide "factual information" for the deposition. After the deposition, he said, the committee would decide whether to call Chung for public testimony sometime in the future. Williams, who said her legal bills in connection with the investigation total $350,000, said her staff found Chung's frequent visits to their offices in the Old Executive Office Building "to be a nuisance and his personal manner irritating." But she said she demanded that Chung be treated with courtesy, in part to compensate for "the snickers that sometimes occurred during his inartful and sometimes confounding use of the English language." "He could be embarrassingly aggressive — sometimes like a bull in a china shop — but he was never unkind," Williams said. "He was different, socially and culturally, and it showed, sometimes painfully so." Describing Chung handing over the $50,000 check, Williams said he was "more excited" than usual and quoted him as saying: "‚'You take, you take. It's DNC. I give to DNC through you.' He was not unkind and not rude, but certainly in my face physically." Committee Democrats did their best to mock yesterday's proceeding. They produced photographs of Chung with smiling GOP politicians, attaching them to a wall in the hearing room that Rep. Thomas M. Barrett (D-Wis.) dubbed the "wall of shame." Those pictured included House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole (Kan.) and Govs. George Allen (Va.), Christine Todd Whitman (N.J.), Jim Edgar (Ill.) and Pete Wilson (Calif.). Calling Chung "an equal opportunity opportunist," Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat, said Chung's activities illustrated that the campaign financing system is "a farce." One panel member who found nothing humorous in yesterday's hearing was Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.). Barr, who is attempting to persuade the House to impeach the president, accused Williams of violating a law that prohibits federal employees from soliciting or receiving political contributions on government property and said that he will write to Attorney General Janet Reno "pressing prosecution" of Williams for the alleged offense. White House special counsel Lanny J. Davis later cited Barr as "an example of a political lynch mob using the tactics of smear and innuendo to suggest criminality." In the daily duel of opposing spokesmen, Will Dwyer, the committee chief Republican spokesman who was standing nearby, replied that Davis's remarks were "regrettable and reprehensible." © Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company Back to the top Go to Campaign Finance Report | Go to National Section