Documents in 2 Huang Safes Seized, Records Show

Investigators have recovered the contents of two safes from John Huang’s former office at the Commerce Department in an effort to determine whether the former Clinton administration appointee improperly handled classified information, newly available records and interviews show.

The search turned up 10 “secret” intelligence reports as well as indications that the Commerce Department inventory system was too porous to trace the whereabouts of sensitive materials Huang received when he worked at the agency, according to Senate and administration sources.

Said a Senate investigator: “The bottom line is that [Huang] had virtually unlimited access to hundreds and hundreds of pieces of intelligence information, and (government officials) have no idea what they showed this guy or what he had.”

FBI and congressional investigators are attempting to learn whether Huang, the former top U.S. executive of the Indonesian-based Lippo Group and the central figure in the current political fund-raising scandal, may have passed secret government data to foreign companies or governments.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which begins public hearings into campaign finance abuses today, is expected to focus on Huang’s role at Commerce, including allegations that the Glendale resident breached national security by furnishing classified information to his former employer.

Huang’s attorney, John C. Keeney Jr., could not be reached for comment. He has said previously that Huang did not engage in any inappropriate conduct. Huang is expected to be called by the Senate panel, but he has indicated he will decline to testify.

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Meanwhile, the Senate committee has obtained records showing that Huang placed at least 150 telephone calls--twice the number reported earlier--to Lippo officials between July 1994 and December 1995, when he served as deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy at Commerce, according to congressional investigators.

Many of the additional calls were placed by Huang from the Washington office of Stephens Inc., an investment company based in Little Rock, Ark., that has business ties to Lippo, investigators said. Newsweek reported this week that the Senate committee intends to call a Stephens secretary, who will testify that Huang brought Commerce documents with him to the Stephens office.

Last month, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), claimed that electronically gathered evidence--presumably telephone calls monitored by a U.S. intelligence agency--confirmed that Huang relayed “classified information” to the Lippo Group.

FBI officials, who are conducting a separate probe of Huang and others, have declined to comment on Solomon’s allegation that Huang may have engaged in economic espionage.

Huang initially received an interim “top secret” security clearance in January 1994, while he was Lippo’s top U.S. official and nearly six months before he began at Commerce. The worldwide Lippo Group, controlled by the Riady family, has extensive business dealings throughout Asia and is partners with a conglomerate owned by the Chinese government.

In his government post, Huang received regular intelligence briefings on Asia because he was “an Asian specialist” and “responsible for the Asia portfolio,” said John H. Dickerson, a CIA liaison to Commerce who regularly briefed Huang between October 1994 and November 1995. Huang had a “particular” interest in China, Dickerson said during a three-day deposition in April, according to transcripts.

Commerce officials said, however, that Huang played a minimal role in developing U.S.-Asia economic policy.

The search for documents in Huang’s government office was disclosed in several hundred pages of transcripts from Dickerson’s deposition, which was taken by the conservative group Judicial Watch as part of a lawsuit it has filed against Commerce seeking public documents relating to the scandal.

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Dickerson said he was surprised to learn Huang left his Commerce post in December 1995 to become a fund-raiser at the Democratic National Committee and that, contrary to department policy, Huang failed to return or destroy all of the classified documents in his possession.

The DNC last month refunded $3 million in tainted donations, much of it from foreign donors. Of the amount returned, $1.6 million was raised by Huang.

Commerce officials decided to search Huang’s safes in October 1996--10 months after his departure--when his name surfaced as part of the scandal. A Commerce spokesperson said that agency investigators found two briefing books and no classified materials in a small safe inside Huang’s office. But a search of a refrigerator-sized safe located just outside Huang’s office turned up 10 “secret” classified documents that had been issued to him.

Huang’s “top secret” clearance allowed him access to “raw” intelligence data, finished intelligence reports and copies of electronic State Department cables from embassies abroad.

Huang received at least 15 raw intelligence reports, three of which “are particularly sensitive and have extremely limited handling,” according to statements from CIA officials who joined Dickerson during his deposition. One official, William McNair, said the three reports given to Huang explicitly warned that any unauthorized release “could result in the death of a source.” He added, “We’re very touchy about those.”

Huang’s access to government secrets and his role in DNC fund-raising are certain to receive extensive scrutiny from the Senate investigative committee. The hearings begin at 7 a.m. PST today with opening statements from the 16 member senators.

Times staff writers Marc Lacey, Alan C. Miller, Ronald J. Ostrow and James Risen contributed to this story.