Huang Leaked Secrets, GOP Lawmaker Says

WASHINGTON — John Huang, the former Clinton administration appointee and star Democratic fund-raiser, conveyed “classified information” to the Indonesia-based Lippo Group, a Republican congressman alleged Thursday.

House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) said he is aware of electronically gathered evidence--presumably telephone calls monitored by a U.S. intelligence agency--verifying that Huang relayed the information.

“I have received reports from government sources that say there are electronic intercepts which provide evidence confirming what I suspected all along, that John Huang committed economic espionage and breached our national security by passing classified information to his former employer, the Lippo Group,” Solomon said.

The congressman and his aides declined to elaborate. They would not say, for instance, whether Solomon based his allegation on information provided directly by intelligence or law enforcement officials. The congressman does not serve on either the House Intelligence Committee or a separate panel that has jurisdiction to investigate Huang’s activities.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, in recent weeks, has briefed members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees about the bureau’s ongoing investigation of Huang and others. An FBI spokesman declined Thursday to comment on any aspect of the inquiry.

If Solomon’s allegation proves credible, it would magnify the significance of the fund-raising controversy that already besets both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Clinton in 1994 appointed Huang--who had been the top U.S.-based representative of the Lippo Group--to the position of deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy at the Commerce Department. On Sept. 13, 1995, Clinton also discussed with Huang and a top Lippo executive, James T. Riady, Huang’s desire to switch from the Commerce Department to the Democratic National Committee.

Three months later, Huang became a finance vice chairman of the committee. Huang went on to raise $3.4 million for the 1996 campaign. Nearly half of that money by now has been identified as of either illegal or questionable origin.

Documents disclosed earlier by the Commerce Department show that Huang made scores of calls on government phones to Lippo offices in Los Angeles. Some of those calls were made close to times when Huang was scheduled to attend classified briefings convened by the Commerce Department’s Office of Intelligence Liaison.

Huang, who also had contacts with Chinese Embassy officials in Washington, maintained a top-secret security clearance both while at the Commerce Department and at the DNC.

The type of secret government data to which Huang had access included authoritative information regarding economic conditions and key decision makers in various countries, China among them. Such information would be valuable to people trying to make high-stakes business decisions.

The possibility that Huang passed classified data to Lippo is especially sensitive because the multibillion-dollar conglomerate is closely aligned with the government of China, where the Riadys have made extensive investments.

Clinton, who as a candidate in 1992 called for a toughening of U.S. policy toward Beijing, reversed course after becoming president, supporting yearly renewals of China’s most-favored-nation trade status.

A spokesman for Clinton, Lanny Davis, said Thursday that the White House had no comment on Solomon’s allegation.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno also declined to say whether Justice Department lawyers have reason to suspect that Huang passed classified information to the Lippo Group. Asked whether Solomon’s seeming disclosure of classified information gathered by investigators makes him susceptible to investigation or prosecution, Reno said:

“I have just heard about the congressman’s comments, so I couldn’t really say one way or the other. People should not comment about pending investigations and pending prosecutions.”

Lawyers for Huang did not return calls. Huang, who is asserting his constitutional right against self-incrimination in response to subpoenas issued by congressional committees, was relieved from his Democratic Party position after the election. He has returned to his residence in Glendale.

Solomon also made public a letter that he sent this week to Freeh, asking the FBI director whether the bureau is conducting “a damage assessment . . . to determine exactly how serious America’s national security was compromised” by Huang. In the letter, Solomon said Huang “may have had” access to “State Department message traffic through a computer network of the Commerce Department.”

But Commerce Department spokeswoman Maria Cardona said Thursday that department officials--including Huang--did not have access to the computer network.

Cardona said two career Commerce Department officials, Paul A. Buskirk, deputy director of security, and Raymond G. Kammer, acting chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration, gave that information to House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) in a recent private briefing.

“They unequivocally said to Burton that [the network] was not accessible through the Department of Commerce,” Cardona said. “Nobody here at the department had or has access to it.”

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.