DNC Dismisses Fund-Raiser, Returns Another $5,000

The Democratic National Committee has quietly dismissed John Huang, the fund-raiser at the heart of the controversy over the party’s acceptance of foreign donations, a party official said Sunday.

DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said the move was not precipitated by the furor over Huang’s fund-raising but was part of a planned post-election staff reduction.

In addition, the DNC disclosed that another donation, of $5,000, from a campaign event organized by Huang was being returned because it came from a person who was not a legal resident of the United States. The DNC has now refunded $595,000 in contributions for which Huang was responsible.

Huang was one of 50 staffers let go Friday as the DNC trimmed from 250 employees to 172, Tobe said.

“All of the fund-raisers who specialized in working with ethnic groups were laid off,” Tobe said, insisting that Huang, who solicited donations in the Asian American community, was not singled out.

Nonetheless, given the intense legal and media scrutiny that Huang faces and his relationship with President Clinton, the decision was politically sensitive.

The inspector general of the Commerce Department, where Huang worked before joining the DNC, as well as the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission are investigating aspects of Huang’s fund-raising. In addition, Republican lawmakers have vowed to conduct congressional hearings.

Huang has not spoken to the news media since the controversy erupted five weeks ago. Calls to his attorney, John C. Keeney Jr., were not returned.

Huang volunteered to raise funds for the Democrats while he was the top executive of Los Angeles-based LippoBank, before joining the Commerce Department in mid-1994. Huang asked to return to fund-raising in 1995, telling Clinton that he would be of more help at the DNC than in the administration, according to a White House account released Friday.

The request came at an Oval Office meeting in September 1995 attended by James T. Riady, an Indonesian financier and friend of Clinton’s who previously employed Huang, and Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey. Huang joined the DNC on Dec. 4, 1995, as vice chairman of the national finance committee, a title he alone held.

Huang was notably successful at the DNC, raising millions of dollars in 10 months. But, in the last two months, four contributions he solicited, including $250,000 from a South Korean company, have been returned. Foreign companies are prohibited from contributing to U.S. election campaigns. Huang’s visits to the White House while at the Commerce Department and his contacts with his former banking associates have also raised questions about a possible mingling of private, policy and political activities.

The most recent illegal donation discovered was from Chia Hui Ho, who attended an April fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, an event that Huang helped organize. Tobe said the $5,000 check would be returned today because Peter Kelly, the temple’s attorney, verified that Ho’s application to become a legal resident--the licit standard for making an individual contribution--was still pending with the Immigration and Naturalization Service when she made the donation. Ho listed the temple as her address.

DNC officials said last month that the event itself was improper because the party does not raise funds at tax-exempt religious institutions. The DNC had earlier surrendered a $5,000 donation from the event.

Tobe said that although the DNC is cutting staff, it will retain some fund-raisers to help retire its $4-million debt.

Huang had been suspended from his fund-raising duties since Oct. 18 but had remained in his $60,000-a-year position until Friday. He will continue, through his attorney, to help the DNC respond to questions about his activities and donations, Tobe said.

Clinton said last week that he did not know in advance about a fund-raising trip that Huang made to Taiwan in May and would have objected if he had.

Tobe said Huang sought contributions from U.S. citizens or legal residents living in Taiwan but raised no money from his visit. The DNC has said none of its other fund-raisers went abroad, and Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour has insisted that “nobody from the RNC went overseas raising money.”

Tobe acknowledged that Huang’s request to undertake a foreign mission “raised eyebrows” among Huang’s superiors, but they nonetheless approved the trip.