Fund-Raiser Denies ‘Trying to Hide’

Beleaguered Democratic fund-raiser John Huang, caught up in a controversy over foreign-linked donations to the party, said Tuesday he “was not trying to hide” from testifying in a federal civil suit.

“I was really trying to stay away from the harassment of the media,” Huang said in a deposition, repeating several times that his friends and relatives in the Washington area had been “harassed by the media.”

Huang, an Asian American who held a high-ranking position at the Department of Commerce before going to the Democratic National Committee, testified as part of a civil suit against that agency.

Among other things, Huang said, friends reported to him that Hillary Rodham Clinton had noted their friendship during an appearance Monday at a fund-raiser for Washington state gubernatorial candidate Gary Locke.

Huang said friends of his who attended the fund-raiser called him and quoted the first lady as saying that “John is also a friend of mine as well.”

Mrs. Clinton’s communications director, Marsha Berry, said no such remarks appear in the first lady’s public statements. She also said she doesn’t remember Mrs. Clinton saying that in conversations with individuals at the fund-raiser, but added that she didn’t hear all of them.

Republicans have been hitting hard at connections between Huang and the Clintons and have questioned whether they or the Democratic Party benefited from contributions from foreign sources.

Huang was questioned for about five hours behind closed doors by an attorney for Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group that brought the suit against the Commerce Department in U.S. District Court.

Huang was subpoenaed to testify as the group seeks to discover whether the late Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown used departmental trade missions to raise money for the Democrats.

It was the first public appearance by Huang, who has been at the center of a growing furor this month over political contributions from foreign-linked and other controversial sources.

Larry Klayman, a lawyer for Judicial Watch, suggested to reporters that with a week to go before the presidential election, Huang’s lawyers were trying to delay the potentially embarrassing deposition.

“It’s pretty transparent what is going on here,” Klayman said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Bruce Hegyi, representing the Commerce Department, said Huang was responding to almost all the questions. “There were one or two he declined to answer,” Hegyi said.

Klayman also said that Huang was being evasive. “I don’t want to characterize what is on the tape, but I don’t find the answers forthcoming,” he said.

Huang raised an estimated $4 million to $5 million this year for the Democratic Party. The DNC has relieved him of his duties, although he remains on the party’s payroll. The DNC also has returned some of the contested donations.

A subpoena was served on Huang’s attorney, John Keeney, on Sunday after federal marshals were unable to locate the fund-raiser for several days.

In his sworn testimony, Huang said, “I was not trying to hide away from the court.”

Questioning of Huang went on throughout the day after U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that a videotape of Huang’s deposition could be released.