Democrats Block Donor Probe Bid for Immunity

The Senate’s investigation into campaign fund-raising improprieties stalled Thursday night as Democrats blocked a bid to grant partial legal immunity to 18 persons until Republicans agree to concessions aimed at ensuring that the inquiry is bipartisan.

The tactical move by Democrats on the Governmental Affairs Committee clearly frustrated the panel’s chairman, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.). With the scheduled start of the committee’s hearings into the fund-raising flap less than a month away, he faces the prospect of a paucity of witnesses.

Still, he vowed to plow ahead in his effort to piece together the web of allegations involving questionable donations during the 1996 election cycle, especially foreign-linked contributions to the Democratic National Committee.

“It’s not a life-or-death matter,” he said of Thursday’s defeat. “We will have no problems filling our time in July, with or without immunity.”

At issue Thursday was whether the committee would grant, in exchange for testimony, limited immunity to 18 lower-level figures in the investigation--including monks and nuns at the Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., where Vice President Al Gore attended a controversial fund-raiser last year.

The monks, nuns and others for whom immunity was sought are suspected of making contributions to the Democrats using money passed to them by John Huang and Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie, two Democratic fund-raisers at the center of the inquiry who have refused to cooperate with investigators. Such contributions are illegal.

Under the immunity grant Thompson sought for the 18 potential committee witnesses, no evidence that they provided could be used in any criminal case against them later.

Justice Department officials cautioned against extending immunity to 16 of the 18 people on the Senate’s list, none of whom were publicly identified Thursday. The department is conducting its own fund-raising inquiry.

With support from two-thirds of the committee’s 16 members needed to approve the immunity, the vote broke on party lines on the 16 witnesses flagged by Justice, with nine Republicans voting for immunity and seven Democrats opposing.

Thompson urged his colleagues to proceed, despite the Justice Department’s reservations.

“These are not criminals who we are dealing with here,” Thompson said. “These are Buddhist monks and nuns who were taken advantage of.”

But Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) retorted: “If these folks are not criminals, then why is their counsel asking for immunity?” Lieberman broke with his colleagues on the other two witnesses but Republicans failed to win the additional Democratic vote they needed to grant immunity.

While Thompson and others accused Democrats of obstructing the investigation, Ohio Sen. John Glenn, the panel’s ranking Democrat, argued that his party was merely seeking to ensure that the panel’s approach is bipartisan.

Glenn won approval Thursday of six subpoenas aimed at uncovering abuses in GOP fund-raising, but he has several dozen others still pending before the panel. Glenn accused Thompson and his GOP colleagues of blocking the subpoenas to keep the investigation focused on the Democrats.

At the top of the Democrats’ list is information concerning the National Policy Forum, a GOP think tank that recently returned foreign-linked money and during 1996 was headed by the party’s then-national chairman, Haley Barbour.

“I don’t see that we’re having that fair and even-handed investigation that Chairman Thompson promised,” Glenn said.

Glenn said that it would be the “height of irresponsibility” to go ahead with immunity for any witnesses without more information from the Justice Department and an analysis of how the action might affect future prosecutions.