Top DNC Figures Tied to Illegal Donations

Democratic contributor Johnny Chien Chuen Chung has told Justice Department investigators that top Democratic National Committee officials knowingly solicited and accepted improper donations from him, according to sources familiar with his account.

Chung, as part of a plea bargain with the department, has claimed that then-DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan personally asked him for a $125,000 donation in April 1995, the sources said. Sullivan took the money despite having previously voiced suspicions that Chung was acting as a conduit for illegal contributions from Chinese businessmen.

Sullivan’s lawyer said he denies Chung’s account of their dealings.

Chung’s accusations come as the Justice Department’s 19-month investigation of 1996 campaign fund-raising enters what law enforcement sources characterized as a new phase. Having brought charges this spring against four contributors who allegedly funneled illegal foreign funds to Democrats, the task force handling the campaign probe is now determining whether there is sufficient evidence to charge any of the DNC officials or Clinton-Gore campaign aides who accepted the money.

“The task force is moving to another stage that is going to involve people in responsible positions in campaign fund-raising and whether those people should be charged,” an official close to the investigation said.

But Chung’s allegations have not convinced investigators to designate Sullivan or any other DNC official as a target of the probe, a formal step that can be a prelude to an indictment, and the task force still hopes that other witnesses will agree to cooperate, including possibly Sullivan himself, according to sources close to the inquiry.

Chung, a Torrance businessman, became the task force’s first major cooperating witness in March as part of an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to orchestrating an illegal “straw donor” scheme to give money to the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection campaign. Chung provided the task force with its first explicit account of foreign funds coming into the 1996 campaign, telling investigators that a Chinese aerospace executive gave him $300,000 for political contributions.

“Johnny Chung is fully cooperating with the entire probe, and that includes providing details of his interaction with DNC officials, including Richard Sullivan, his primary point of contact there,” said Brian A. Sun, Chung’s attorney.

Overall, the DNC took $366,000 from Chung in 1995 and 1996. All of that money was returned after the election, when the committee determined it had “insufficient information” about its origins.

Justice Department officials expect that decisions will be made soon on whether to press charges in the matter.