Ex-L.A. Councilman Woo Linked to Fund-Raising Furor

Two Republican lawmakers on Thursday assailed former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo for last year sending controversial Democratic fund-raiser John Huang a copy of a letter that sought to arrange a meeting between Asian American business owners and a Commerce Department official.

Woo sent the letter in his capacity as an executive at the Clinton administration’s national service agency, AmeriCorps, a job he has since left.

The Republicans are wondering whether by contacting Huang, Woo may have been attempting to help Huang solicit political donations from the Southern California business owners.

“It is no secret that Mr. Huang was deeply involved in fund-raising for the president and the Democratic National Committee. . . . This letter appears to be a part of that fund-raising effort,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan.

Huang left the Commerce Department in 1995 to become a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser. He has emerged as the pivotal figure in the controversy over improper foreign-linked money funneled to the party.

The Republicans say that Woo’s faxing of the letter to Huang last summer fuels their concern that AmeriCorps has mixed partisan politics with policy.

The legislators referred the matter to the Department of Justice, congressional committees investigating Democratic fund-raising practices and the corporation’s inspector general.

The AP quoted Woo as saying that in seeking to set up the meeting last year, he was merely responding to a request he received “from some people in the Indian community” interested in meeting someone who had knowledge of U.S. policy toward India.

Woo said it was “entirely natural” to contact Huang because he would know “who in the Commerce Department would be the appropriate person.”

Huang had been a supporter of Woo’s mayoral bid when Huang was vice chairman of Lippo Bank in Los Angeles, Woo said.