Huang Denies Role as Conduit for Foreign Nations’ Donations

Making a rare public appearance, the man at the center of the Democratic Party’s fund-raising controversy denied funneling money from foreign governments into President Clinton’s reelection campaign.

“I don’t know if foreign governments have” given money, John Huang said, according to Monday’s Daily News. “If there is money, I haven’t seen it.”

Huang appeared Sunday at a New York City banquet for veterans from a Taiwan military academy. He told his audience that Chinese Americans “don’t have the numbers” to wield much influence, “but we can participate by giving money. Money is the milk of politics.”

After giving the speech, Huang told the newspaper he would testify at congressional hearings if subpoenaed. He declined to discuss specifics of numerous allegations against him.

Senate campaign-finance investigators “would love to provide him with an opportunity to testify,” Paul Clark, a spokesman for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said Monday. “We have met more than once with his attorneys, who have consistently said he would not testify, that he would invoke his 5th Amendment right” against self-incrimination, Clark said. “If that now appears from this news report to have changed, we will certainly be in touch with Mr. Huang’s attorneys soon.”

Neither of Huang’s lawyers, Ty Cobb and John C. Keeney Jr., returned a reporter’s calls seeking comment.