AIM: THE CASE AGAINST JAMES RIADY
Bill Nalty
Reed Irvine - Editor
2001 Report #6
THE CASE AGAINST JAMES RIADY
On March 19, 2001, Judicial Watch urged the U.S. District Court in Los
Angeles to reject the plea agreement under which Bill Clinton's friend
James T. Riady and the Lippo Bank escaped with what was for them a slap
on the wrist for their serious violations of campaign finance laws and
other crimes.
The pleading submitted by Judicial Watch is a clear and comprehensive
summary of those crimes. It makes a persuasive case that the punishment
agreed to by the Reno Justice Department and approved by the Ashcroft
Justice Department does not come close to fitting the crimes and should
have been set aside. The media coverage of this miscarriage of justice
has been confined to reporting the judge's acceptance of the plea
agreement — a fine of $8.6 million, which will no doubt be paid by the
multi-billion-dollar Lippo Group, and 400 hours of community service
that Riady may perform in Indonesia.
The Washington Times ran a long editorial on March 26, showing how the
Riadys had bought favors from the Clinton administration. It blamed the
plea bargain, which was negotiated ten days before Clinton left the
White House, on "stonewaller-in-chief " Janet Reno. It made no mention
of the failure of the new administration to retract or revise it or of
the Judicial Watch pleading. For the historical record, we are
reproducing that pleading in this report with a few changes, including
dropping footnotes and attachments, to fit it into the AIM Report
format.
THE JUDICIAL WATCH BRIEF
Defendant James T. Riady has reportedly pleaded guilty to felony
conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign contributions in the 1996
Democratic fundraising scandal and for other illegal contributions
during the past eight-year period. Co-defendant Lippo Bank California
has pleaded guilty to 86 relatively minor misdemeanor charges concerning
illegal contributions and will pay nearly all of a U.S. $8.6 million
fine from the combined multi-billion dollar financial holdings of the
international conglomerate known as Lippo Group. The reported terms of
the agreement call for Mr. Riady to be sentenced to two-years probation,
during which time he will not be allowed to enter the United States
except at the invitation of U.S. government agencies. Mr. Riady also
will be required to perform 400 hours of community service. This
inconsequential punishment simply does not meet the severity and gravity
of the deeply corrosive, cynical and manipulative criminal campaign the
defendants waged against the American people and the United States
Constitution.
In its original memorandum of law, requesting the Court to set aside the
proposed plea agreement, Judicial Watch predicted that the Clinton-Gore
Justice Department's rushed processing of this plea agreement was an
effort to foreclose any credible investigation into possible criminal
conspiracy of an as-of-yet unknown scope centering on John Huang and
other witting and unwitting agents of the intelligence services of the
Communist government of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Unfortunately, Judicial Watch's prediction was entirely accurate. The
Associated Press reported on March 13:
Indonesian billionaire James Riady's cooperation has improved
investigators understanding of campaign finance violations, but probably
won't lead to more convictions, prosecutors said in sentencing
recommendations released Monday.
The cooperation of Mr. Riady, a key figure in the Democratic campaign
finance scandal, "has been helpful to the government in obtaining a
complete understanding of the scope and significance of the illegal
conduct.
It appears that Justice Department officials have abrogated their
responsibility to follow important criminal leads generated by Mr.
Riady's "cooperation." While the Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan O'Brien now
claims to have a "complete understanding" of the violations of law Mr.
Riady and his agents have committed against the American people and the
Constitution, he is unwilling or unable to pursue justice. It is wrong
for the U.S. Attorney's Office to simultaneously claim complete
knowledge of a criminal conspiracy and fail to act in pursuing the
criminals involved in the conspiracy. This conspiracy involved a scheme
to alter and subvert U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of a foreign
corporation, as well as a concerted campaign to purchase and peddle
influence and classified information at the highest levels of the
federal government. The U.S. Attorney may have a "complete
understanding" of Mr. Riady's crimes, but the American people do not.
There is no "factual basis" upon which the Court may accept the
inconsequential plea agreement originally proposed by Defendants and the
Clinton Administration. The obvious reason for the U.S. Attorney's
failure to pursue clear criminal violations of law is that as an
appointee of the Clinton Administration, he refuses to pursue criminal
leads that point to the officials that appointed him to office. Under
these circumstances, the requirements of Rule 11(f) do not permit the
Court to accept the proposed plea agreement, at least not without a full
evidentiary hearing and other satisfactory inquiries into the true and
complete facts of this case, including the timing and real purpose
behind the Clinton-Gore Justice Department's offering of this plea
agreement.
The Riady Criminal Ring
Judicial Watch has documented Mr. Riady's and Lippo Group's substantial
interests in China, including real estate, banking, electronics,
currency exchange, retail, electricity and tourism. Mr. Riady's
investments, contacts, influence and political savvy made him a valuable
resource to Chinese intelligence. His independent wealth and corporate
apparatus provided him sufficient infrastructure to establish his own
network of corporate operatives in the United States. Riady's Lippo
interests as well as his business ties to the PRC provide both the
motive and the opportunity to capitalize on developing a scheme to
purchase and peddle influence and classified information, targeting the
highest levels of the U.S. government. Mr. Riady's "business
associates," dealings and contacts reveal a veritable "who's who" of
highly suspect Communist Chinese agents and provide the framework or
outline for the entire "Chinagate" scandal documented by the 1997 Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Special Investigation Report, hereinafter
the "Thompson Report."
We wish to remind the Court of Mr. Riady's more notable associates.
These are people with whom Mr. Riady has maintained close and continuous
contact over a period of several years, and with whom he has extensive
business dealings and deep financial ties. Mr. Riady's main business
partner in China, is Shen Jueren. Shen Jueren is the head of China
Resources Holding Company, an espionage front operation for the PRC
government's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. Shen
has stated on different occasions that "China Resources is a state-owned
company and all senior staff are government officials." Shen has been a
member of the Chinese Communist Party since 1955, and an officer of the
Chinese Office of Foreign Trade since 1953. Since he has been a member
of the Chinese Communist Party since 1955, the Court can conclude that
his loyalty remains high to the national interests of the PRC. Shen
Jueren met with former Vice-President Gore at a Santa Monica, Cal.
fund-raiser on September 27, 1994. This is a further example of the
insidious method in which Mr. Riady facilitated and ensured that Shen,
his business partner and a Communist Chinese intelligence operative, had
access to the former Vice President and close advisors.
Another business partner of Mr. Riady is Li Ka-Shing, the majority owner
of Hutchison Wampoa Co., Ltd. – and partner with the China Ocean
Shipping Company (COSCO), the merchant marine arm of the People's
Liberation Army. Mr. Li Ka-Shing is a major shareholder and investor in
the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC). CITIC
is run by General Wang Jun, of the People's Liberation Army — the PRC's
main arms dealer to Communist regimes, terrorists, and rogue states.
CITIC is the parent company of China's Polytechnologies, an agency that
oversees China's acquisition and sales of weapons, and that it operates
as a component of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army.
General Wang Jun was implicated in the illicit shipment of 2,000 AK-47
assault rifles to gang members in California.
Judicial Watch respectfully reminds the Court that these are Mr. Riady's
business associates and contacts, and that under the terms of the
proposed plea agreement and the U.S. Attorney's press release of March
13, 2001, the American public is likely to never find out the details
surrounding what the U.S. Attorney claims is a "complete understanding"
of Defendant Riady's criminal conduct.
Mr. Riady's influence peddling and political-favor bartering paid off in
1996 when President Clinton designated 1.7 million acres of southern
Utah as the Grand-Escalante National Monument. The Clean-Air Act
eliminates the use of many types of coal by U.S. power companies with
the exception of hyper-low sulfur coal. This type of coal is known to
exist in only three locations: 1. an extremely remote area of Colombia;
2. Kalimantan Island in Indonesia and 3. Grand-Escalante National
Monument. The creation of this national monument gave the coal deposits
on Kalimantan Island that are controlled by the Riady family and the
Indonesian government a near monopoly on the sale of the sought-after
coal.
President Clinton explained that the creation of the Grand-Escalante
National Monument was done out of environmental concern to protect the
land from development. However, the Court, respectfully, must conclude
that there was no such environmental concern regarding Grand-Escalante
National Monument. In 1997, the Clinton-Gore administration awarded
Conoco Oil Corporation an oil-drilling contract for the Grand-Escalante
National Monument. Mr. Riady appears to have successfully cashed-in a
political favor with the Clinton administration in order to gain a coal
monopoly.
Convicted felon John Huang's ties to James Riady, Indonesia's Lippo
Group and the Chinese government run deep. Huang and his family are from
the Chinese coastal province of Fujian, which is the Riady family's home
province. In the early 1980's Huang joined Union Planters Bank of
Memphis. Union Planters sent Huang to Hong Kong in 1983 to open a branch
office for the bank. Due to a lack of business in the agricultural
trade, Union Planters closed its Hong Kong branch office. Huang was then
hired by the Riadys and held several positions within Lippo's banking
operations for the next few years. In 1986, the Riadys transferred Huang
to the Lippo banking operations in California. John Huang became Mr.
Riady's "man in America."
In 1988, Huang, Riady, and convicted felon Maria Hsia created the
Pacific Leadership Council as a Democratic fund-raising operation and an
instrument to attract more Asian-Americans to vote for Democratic Party
candidates. Huang, in conjunction with the Pacific Leadership Council
organized and sponsored a 1988 Democratic fund-raiser at James Riady's
Brentwood home in Los Angeles. At this event Mr. Riady raised $110,000
for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). The Washington
Times reported on May 12, 1997, that four days after this event Mr.
Riady wrote a highly detailed memo to Ms. Hsia instructing her to
"follow up and let me know of progress" in pursuing the numerous quid
pro quos that Mr. Riady had stated in a document named "DSCC Issues and
Agenda." Huang sponsored and organized with Hsia the now-infamous April
29, 1996 fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Temple, where former Vice President
Gore illegally engaged in campaign fund-raising.
At the direction of Riady, Huang was one of the tour guides for a 1989
trip to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Indonesia by Senator Al Gore and
California Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy. Foreign travel, business forums
and "community outreach" events were expertly arranged and exploited by
Riady and his agents to include felons Huang and Hsia, to cultivate
relationships and contacts, as well as serving as a means to personally
ingratiate themselves with politicians and their fundraising staffs.
On August 12, 1992, at the direction of Defendant Riady, Huang issued a
$50,000 check from Hip Hing Holdings to be sent to the Democratic
National Committee Victory Fund. Hip Hing was a Riady-owned shell
company under Huang's control. John Huang remained the faithful
subordinate of James Riady. At Riady's direction, Huang was maneuvered
to a position at the Department of Commerce. Huang was given a security
clearance in January of 1994 in anticipation of his imminent assignment
to the Commerce Department. Huang did not actually report to work at the
Commerce Department until July 18, 1994, giving him five-and-a-half
months of unlawful access to highly classified material.
CIA Briefs John Huang
At the Commerce Department Huang was the Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary to Charles Meissner, Assistant Secretary in Charge of the
International Economic Policy Bureau. Incredibly, while in this
sensitive position, Huang reported to Riady by phone many times each
business day. He had access to classified material, and he received at
least 37 intelligence briefings, including sensitive "raw intelligence"
from the CIA. After these briefings, Huang frequently used office space,
phones and equipment in the Washington office of Stephens, Inc., of
Little Rock, Arkansas located across the street from the Commerce
Department.
On June 5, 1995 as the CIA briefer came out of Huang's office, he
noticed that Huang's next appointment was with Minister Wang of the
Chinese Embassy. On October 11, 1995, Huang took a cab from the Commerce
Department to an evening event at the Embassy of Indonesia. The next
morning he took a cab back to the Commerce Department from the official
residence of the Chinese ambassador. Such "placement," "access," motive,
opportunity and history of contacts suggests that Huang was engaged in
espionage. Clearly his controller was James Riady.
The Court should consider the following "unusual" chronology of events
in considering the scope and depth of Mr. Riady's crimes. Former
Associate Attorney General Webb Hubbell, Hillary Rodham Clinton's Rose
Law Firm partner, met with Mrs. Clinton on Monday June 20, 1994. On
Thursday, June 23, 1994, Mr. Riady met Mr. Hubbell for an unusual
back-to-back breakfast and lunch set of meetings. Mr. Riady returned to
the White House for a third time that same day (Thursday, June 23,
1994), while John Huang made two visits to the White House that day as
well. On Monday June 27, 1994, the Lippo-controlled Hong Kong Chinese
Bank paid Webb Hubbell $100,000 from a Riady company account. Hubbell
has refused to disclose to federal investigators why he was given
$100,000 by Mr. Riady.
On October 12, 2000 the Far Eastern Economic Review reported that
Defendant Riady had invited then President Bill Clinton to join the
board of Lippo Group as soon as the President left office in 2001. Mr.
Riady's admitted inducement of bribery is a crime unto itself. Mr.
Riady's shameless, continued influence-peddling and political-favor
trading is outrageous, given that he was supposedly "cooperating" with
investigators at the very same time he admitted soliciting the
president.
On September 13, 1995, Defendant Riady brokered Huang's job assignment
in the Oval Office, with the personal participation and assent of
President Clinton. Mr. Clinton's memory however, is apparently not as
keen. President Clinton told Justice Department campaign finance task
force that he had "no specific recollection" of conversations he had
with Mr. Riady during an August 1992 limousine ride when Riady promised
to funnel $1 million into his presidential campaign. President Clinton
claims to recall only that "sometime in '92 after I became the nominee"
Mr. Riady had promised to help his campaign.
Riady's Record Demands Justice
The Associated Press has reported that:
Government documents said that the Lippo Group hoped to influence
American foreign policy for its own advantage. Among its goals was to
gain most favored nation trade status for China; normalization of U.S.
relations with Vietnam; open trade policies with Indonesia and certain
U.S. legal changes that would benefit the bank's business opportunities.
Mr. Riady achieved all of his Lippo Group objectives. The old adage,
"Crime does not pay" must be upheld by this Court. Mr. Riady's plea
agreement does not effect any meaningful punishment on him personally or
his multi-billion dollar empire. The U.S. Attorney's proposed punishment
for the Defendants amounts to a "nuisance." Riady, Lippo Group and their
agents "bought" changes in U.S. government policy through bribery.
Somehow the Justice Department has successfully "talked away" Mr.
Riady's crimes to the point where they are administrative filing errors.
The Court must not let this blatant violation of law be minimized to the
point where the integrity of the U.S. Courts is called into question for
refusing to demand accountability from prosecutors who shy away from
tackling politically difficult or embarrassing cases.
Not In The Public Interest
Sweeping all this under the rug, the proposed plea addresses only
misdemeanor violations of routine administrative reporting requirements
of the Federal Elections Commission. The proposed punishment does not
"fit the crime" and prevents future investigation by prosecutors
untainted by obvious conflicts of interest. The Court must,
respectfully, view this plea agreement as insultingly simplistic,
deliberately misleading, and factually untrue. The Court must,
respectfully, reject the proposed plea agreement in total.
In addition, the Court also must reject the proposed plea agreement
because it is contrary to the public interest. Accepting the proposed
plea agreement will further undermine the public's already damaged sense
of trust and confidence in our system of justice, because the Justice
Department appears to have no plans to prosecute President Clinton or
Vice President Gore, who courted Mr. Riady during White House visits,
did Mr. Riady's bidding, and benefitted substantially from Mr. Riady's
illegal campaign contributions.
Accepting the proposed plea agreement, with its recommendation of
punishments that upon examination amount to nothing more than a minor
nuisance to the defendants, flies in the face of facts which suggest
that far more serious offenses were committed by Riady and his agents.
Another figure in the campaign finance scandal, Mr. Johnny Chung—who did
not engage in espionage and did not flee the United States, but instead
cooperated fully with all U.S. government agencies and the U.S.
Congress—received 3000 hours of community service from U.S. District
Court Judge Manuel L. Real as part of his sentence. The Democratic
National Committee (DNC) even recommended that the Court "throw the
book" at Mr. Chung since they were "victims" of his campaign donations.
Judicial Watch is puzzled by the silence of the DNC in the instant
matter before the Court
Mr. Chung is unique in this on-going scandal; the cooperation and
excellent memory he demonstrated before congressional committees,
Justice Department investigators and in deposition taken by this public
interest law firm, are notable and praise-worthy. Riady, who fled to
Indonesia and "stonewalled" investigators for years, reportedly will be
required to perform only 400 hours of community service—either in
Jakarta, Indonesia or in the United States—should he ever choose to
return to this country. It is even questionable whether this
"punishment" will ever be enforced. The gross disparity between the
punishments received by Mr. Chung and Mr. Riady, and the obvious,
preferential treatment being given to Mr. Riady, will undermine the
public faith in the impartiality of the justice system.
Surely, the public interest demands that a full investigation of all
wrongdoing and violations of law be undertaken before any plea agreement
can be accepted by this Court.
In some instances, major figures in this scandal have chosen to simply
flout the law with frivolous, excessive and improper invocation of
constitutional claims as well as sudden, profound loss of memory. In
five continuing depositions taken of him by Judicial Watch thus far in
Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Commerce, Civil Action No.
95-0133 (RCL) (D. District of Columbia), John Huang invoked the Fifth
Amendment nearly 2,500 times.
On 140 occasions in these depositions, U.S. Magistrate Judge John M.
Facciola, a Clinton appointee who has shown a regard for the law,
without regard for politics, has recommended that Huang be held in
contempt for failing to answer questions properly put to him by Judicial
Watch.
Acceptance of the Defendants' plea agreement, which provides no
guarantees that Mr. Riady will cooperate, and, indeed, may not even be
enforceable if Mr. Riady returns to Indonesia, will no doubt lead the
American public's interest in justice down the same dead-end street of
denials, dissembling and amnesia.
Conclusion
This Court is now one of the few sources of hope for the American people
that its expectation of honest and open government will be repaired. As
respected columnist William Safire recently noted in The New York Times:
Staring us in the face is this stunning assertion now harder than ever
to controvert: An American president's foreign policy decisions were
substantially influenced by unlawful campaign contributions at crucial
times from a foreign source. In my view, that inescapable judgment will
be more damning in history's eyes than Whitewater cover-ups or any
abuses for which Clinton was impeached. But the election law was broken
and the reluctant Justice Department had to be hounded by a vigilant
press and frustrated Congress into doing even part of its duty. Riady's
much-needed money passed and Clinton's favors were done and America's
Asian policies were changed. No nostalgic spinning or pleas to move on
will ameliorate that betrayal of trust.
This Court has an opportunity to correctively seal the breach in our
national security and hold accountable those who would contribute to the
destruction of our way of life. This Court, by rejecting the proposed
plea agreement between the Defendants and the Clinton Administration,
will protect and preserve the faith of the nation in its system of
justice.
What You Can Do
Send the enclosed cards or your own cards or letters to David Pecker
CEO, American Media, Inc., to Craig Brinkley and Judge David B. Sentelle
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
NOTES
THANKS TO CRAIG BRINKLEY, A YOUNG AIM MEMBER IN MICHIGAN, WE MAY NOW
HAVE the smoking gun that will begin the unraveling of the cover-up of
Vincent Foster's murder. Craig has been deeply interested in the Foster
case. He gives a lot of credit to AIM, Chris Ruddy, Hugh Sprunt, Patrick
Knowlton, John Clarke and Hugh Turley for sparking and sustaining his
interest. But like Robert Bracey, the young high school graduate from
Dearborn who discovered that the autopsy on Foster located the entrance
wound in the back of his throat (the posterior oropharynx), Craig has
greatly advanced the ball by submitting a simple FOIA request no one had
thought of making in the past seven years. He asked how many searches
had been made of the National Criminal Interstate Computer system (NCIC)
for a gun bearing either or both of the serial numbers on the 1913 Colt
Army Special that was found under Foster's hand. Those numbers were
356555 and 355055. Six months later he got an answer from William C.
Temple of the Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
MR. TEMPLE WROTE: "A SEARCH OF THE NCIC STOLEN GUN FILE REVEALED THAT
INQUIRIES were made using serial number 355055 as the only search
descriptor. These searches were made on March 3, 1993 at 22:07 Eastern
Standard Time, March 7, 1993 at 14:42 EST, April 29, 1993 at 12:15
Eastern Daylight Time and July 20,1993 at 22:45 EDT." That was the day
of Foster's death. He did not say who requested the searches. We have
asked Mr. Temple for that information, and one of his subordinates,
Marilyn Walton, has promised me that the search will be made and the
information about who requested those searches will be provided to us. I
believe that this should force the reopening of the Foster investigation
because just the fact that those requests were made proves that the gun
found in Foster's hand was planted there to fake a suicide. This is the
keystone whose removal collapses the suicide arch constructed by the
Park Police, Fiske and Starr.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE REQUESTERS COULD MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY
THE killers and their protectors. Only law enforcement agencies can make
search requests to NCIC. They can ask for checks on stolen guns or cars
on behalf of others. Some law enforcement agency or agencies either had
possession of the gun found in Foster's hand or were in contact with
someone who did, and it was not Vincent Foster. It is likely that
whoever originated the queries in March and April supplied the gun that
was placed in Foster's hand on July 20. If they were not involved in his
murder they may know who was. Craig Brinkley's brilliant idea may prove
not only that Foster was murdered, but it might also expose those
responsible for killing him.
ON MARCH 23, I ADDRESSED THE PUNDITS CLUB IN PALM BEACH, A GROUP THAT I
HAVE spoken to many times over the years. I haven't accepted their
invitations in recent years, having cut down on my traveling, but Chris
Ruddy, whose reporting forced the reopening of the Vince Foster
investigation in 1994, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Chris is now
running NewsMax.com, an excellent Web site with such a wide selection of
news, analysis and comment that one could spend an entire day visiting
it. NewsMax.com broke the story of Craig Brinkley's important discovery
discussed above. He also publishes a weekly magazine and his own books.
His operation is based in West Palm Beach, and he invited me to come
down at his expense to visit the NewsMax headquarters and to combine it
with a speech to the Pundits. I brought the Pundits up to date on some
new developments in the Foster case, beginning with Dr. Henry Lee's
statement to a reporter for the supermarket tabloid Globe that he would
like to see the Foster case reopened. Dr. Lee was hired by Ken Starr as
a consultant on the that case. He was then director of the Connecticut
State Police Forensic Science Laboratory.
HAVING QUESTIONED BOTH GLOBE REPORTER DAWNA KAUFMANN AND HENRY LEE about
the statement she attributed to him, I am satisfied that she is telling
the truth in affirming its accuracy and that his denial lacks
credibility. She says that she had an article about the Foster case
written for Globe when they asked her to get a comment from Dr. Lee. He
was speaking at the annual convention of the American Academy of
Forensic Sciences in Seattle on Feb. 20. Kaufmann went to the
convention, taking along a copy of a new book titled "Famous Crimes
Revisited" that Lee coauthored. The fact that he included a chapter on
the Foster case in this book about famous murders is by itself and
indication that he has strong doubts about the suicide finding.
THE DISCUSSION OF THE CASE IN THE BOOK CONFIRMS THAT. LEE WRITES, "(O)N
BAL- ance, I was satisfied there was sufficient evidence for me to agree
with the Starr Report — that Foster took his own life — even though some
of the claims of the ‘murder conspiracy' theorists were compelling.
There were far too many of these to mull over, but I thought of a few as
representative samples and filed them away for use later...." The book
has two lists, one of evidence supporting murder and one supporting
suicide. Even though it omits some of the most compelling evidence, the
murder list is stronger than the suicide list. [These lists are for some
reason found in the chapter on the JonBenet Ramsey case.]
MS. KAUFMANN SAYS SHE APPROACHED LEE AT A CONVENTION RECEPTION,
INTRODUCED herself as a reporter for Globe and told him she wanted to
get a quote for her story on the Foster case. She also had him autograph
her copy of his book. She says she asked him how he felt about reopening
the Foster investigation and he replied: "As a scientist I can only give
a recommendation. But I would like to see the case reopened, but I don't
think it will happen." She thanked him and went to her room and typed
the quote, which with the omission of the last clause became the lead in
Globe's story on Foster in its March 27 issue. It was a stunning
statement because Starr relied heavily on Lee's report and reputation in
trying to make the case for suicide.
WHEN I FIRST ASKED LEE ABOUT THIS, HE DENIED HAVING MADE THE STATEMENT
AND claimed he had no recollection of the interview. At that time, I
didn't know who did the interview, when and where it was done and what
Lee had said about the Foster case in his book. Ms. Kaufmann impressed
me with the clarity of her recollection of the interview, its brevity,
the consistency of the quote with what Lee said in his book and the fact
that she was able to type it so soon after getting it. When I told Lee
what I had learned from her, he still denied everything. Asked about the
compelling evidence that Foster was murdered that he describes in the
book, he said, "I always try to present both sides."
THAT IS NOT TRUE. HE CERTAINLY DIDN'T PRESENT BOTH SIDES IN HIS REPORT
TO STARR. This was one of at least three untrue statements that Lee made
in our phone conversations. The others were that he didn't pay any
attention to witness reports and that he didn't know that the medical
examiner who did Foster's autopsy claimed he didn't take x-rays because
the machine was not working. Lee's reputation rests largely on his
claims to have found evidence that everyone else missed. He tried but
didn't get away with this in the O.J. Simpson case. He got away with it
in the Foster case. There is no evidence that anyone tried to verify his
claims that he had found evidence such as grass stains and dirt on
Foster's shoes that the FBI crime lab had missed. Ken Starr even bought
his cockamamie theory involving an oven mitt and sunflower seeds that he
concocted to prove that the gun found in Foster's hand was his. This
shows that Lee knew that there was no evidence that the gun had ever
been in Foster's possession. He invented the oven-mitt story to remedy
this serious flaw in the suicide theory. The FBI had employed a
different solution. They persuaded Mrs. Foster to say that the black gun
found in Foster's hand was the silver gun she took to Washington.
ONE OF THE SURPRISING DISCOVERIES AT THE RIADY PLEA AGREEMENT HEARING IN
LOS Angeles on March 19 was that contrary to public statements the
Democratic National Committee has failed to return the illegal
contributions it received from the Riadys and the Lippo Group. This was
revealed by Justice Department lawyers. This came up because under the
plea agreement any refund of these illegal contributions to Riady must
be given to the U.S. government. Larry Klayman, the chairman and general
counsel of Judicial Watch, said that "the failure of the DNC to return
the illegal foreign campaign contributions, underscores the sham and
bogus nature of the Justice Department's campaign finance investigations
and prosecutions." Klayman points out that "not a single DNC or
Clinton-Gore White House official has been prosecuted, much less
indicted, in the Chinagate scandal."
KLAYMAN SAID, "NONE OF THE FAT CAT ‘WHITE GUYS' AT THE DNC OR THE
CLINTON-GORE White House have been held to account. Nor have the
politicians, such as Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) Carl Levin (D-Mich.),
Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), and others who received illegal monies from
Riady and his operative, John Huang." He noted that Elaine Chao, the
Chinese wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, (R-Tenn.) arranged for illegal
contributions from Huang to Senator Alfonse D'Amato.
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rose...@rapidnet.com
>Reed Irvine - Editor
A minute of watching that poor old bastard run his litany of conspiracies,
almost makes you feel sorry for the dumb asshole.
>THE CASE AGAINST JAMES RIADY
>
>On March 19, 2001, Judicial Watch urged the U.S. District Court in Los
>Angeles to reject the plea agreement
TOOOO FUNNY ! ! !
=====================================================
There's only one problem: this little thing called "preponderance of
evidence."
Any Klaymanesque idiot can file a suit, but in order for a lawsuit to be
successfully pursued, there has to be SOME basis for it to be pursued.
That's why Larry Klayman's "lawsuits" never get beyond the filing
stage. Klayman files these things not because he intends to win them,
but as an excuse to do self-aggrandizing press conferences and, more
importantly, mass mailings to his dupes telling them what a fine job
he's doing of harassing Bill Clinton. The dupes, in turn, funnel money
to Klayman, thus enabling Larry not to have to submit his resume to the
Taco Bell night shift manager.