Key Fund-Raiser Agrees to Testify in House Probe

One of the most sought-after witnesses in the campaign fund-raising scandal, Torrance businessman Johnny Chien Chuen Chung, is willing to appear before a congressional committee this week--but only behind closed doors.

Chung intends to assert his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, although he holds out the tantalizing prospect that he might testify on some limited topics.

In a written offer sent Monday to House investigators, Chung’s Santa Monica-based attorney, Brian A. Sun, said that his client would comply with a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee subpoena, but would not necessarily have much to say. In an attempt to avoid the spectacle of a trip to Washington, Sun also said that Chung would be willing to speak to investigators in a deposition in Santa Monica.

House investigators subpoenaed Chung last week, expecting him to do nothing but invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. But GOP lawmakers had hoped that he would have to do so in front of television cameras, highlighting for the public the difficulty that the inquiry faces in questioning witnesses who either have fled overseas or declined to speak with investigators.

“We’re not just trying to bring the guy up on the Hill and beat on him,” said a senior House investigator. “To the extent he’s able to tell his side of the story, we’d like to hear what he has to say. To the extent he wants to exert his 5th Amendment privileges, we’ll respect that.”

Chung, one of the most generous Democratic donors during the last presidential campaign, remains in legal peril whether he opens his mouth or not. Donors to Clinton’s reelection effort have told House investigators that they were reimbursed by Chung for contributions they made, a violation of federal election law. And neither the House nor the Senate fund-raising investigation committees have offered him immunity in exchange for his testimony.

Sun said Chung has not knowingly violated any campaign finance regulations. But the donors have said one of Chung’s employees, Nancy Lee, asked them to write checks to the Clinton-Gore campaign for which they were later reimbursed.

In his letter to committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.), Sun said efforts to humiliate Chung by forcing him to assert his privilege against self-incrimination on national television “evoke memories of the [McCarthy] hearings . . . a tragic unfortunate and indisputably embarrassing period in our history.”

Sun disputed suggestions that Chung is an uncooperative witness, noting that he did not flee the country and is cooperating with a separate Department of Justice investigation.

Even with limited testimony from Chung, the House committee intends to delve into Chung’s donations to the Democrats, which have been returned, and the White House access that they apparently won him. Expected to testify about Chung is a variety of White House and Democratic National Committee aides who saw him strolling through the halls of power.

The most prominent of the witnesses will be Maggie Williams, the former chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chung, who was seeking access for visiting Chinese businessmen, has said that he handed over a $50,000 DNC donation check to Williams inside the White House after aides to the first lady had solicited him.

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Chung said that it was Williams who arranged for him to donate to a private committee that publicly defended the first family against Whitewater-related ethics attacks.

Also expected to testify is Robert L. Suettinger, a China specialist at the National Security Council who once called Chung a “hustler” to be “treated with a pinch of suspicion.”

That warning came after Clinton expressed concerns about official photos showing the president meeting with a Chinese delegation that included Huang Jichun, a Chinese arms trader. Chung had arranged the gathering to watch a March 1995 presidential radio address in the Oval Office.

“It turns out they are various Chinese gurus and the POTUS wasn’t sure we’d want photos of him with these people circulating around,” White House official Melanie B. Darby wrote in an e-mail message, using the acronym for president of the United States to refer to Clinton.

Suettinger wrote back to Darby--who has also been called as a witness--that he did not see any foreign policy damage in handing over the pictures. But he said of Chung: “My impression is that he’s a hustler, and appears to be involved in setting up some kind of consulting operation that will thrive by bringing Chinese entrepreneurs into town for exposure to high-level U.S. officials.”

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Lacey reported from Washington and Rempel from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Alan C. Miller contributed from Washington.