Kerry-Chung Issue Revived in new Newseek---meeting story discrepancy

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4257484

Newsweek Revives 1996 Kerry-Chung Issue
Sun February 1, 2004 05:40 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry met a key figure in the 1996 fund-raising scandals well before the Massachusetts senator had previously acknowledged, Newsweek reported on Sunday in its Feb. 9 issue.

The news magazine said it had obtained documents that showed Taiwanese-American entrepreneur Johnny Chung, who later pleaded guilty to illegal campaign contributions, came to Kerry's Washington office about two months before he hosted a Los Angeles fund-raiser on Sept. 9, 1996.

Kerry had said in 1998 that he did not meet Chung until the night of the fund-raiser.


SNIP

Chung pleaded guilty to funneling $28,000 in illegal contributions from bank transfers made on the orders of Chinese military intelligence to the campaigns of Kerry and former President Bill Clinton.

"There was never any suggestion that Kerry knew about the dubious origins of Chung's largess," Newsweek wrote.

SNIP

Newsweek said it had obtained a hand-written note from Kerry to Chung dated July 31, 1996 that referred to their meeting the previous week. Kerry wrote, "Barbara (identified by Newsweek as a Kerry fund-raiser) told me of your willingness to help me with my campaign."

SNIP

In 1997 Kerry had denied a meeting set up for Chung and Liu with Securities and Exchange Commission officials in exchange for the contribution.

MORE

eom

Kerry's secret is out, for all to see. Too much money-men/connections/influence for me.

The Newsweek article is spreading.....tsk, tsk, tsk. Will Washington Insiders ever learn? If you lie, cheat, steal, or break the law, it will ALWAYS come back and bite you in the behind! I wonder how much more of this garbage the RNC has on Kerry? I can just imagine.

Wesley K. Clark could not keep quiet for long. The meeting with Vice President Cheney on July 16, 2002, had started with casual banter. But the retired four-star general quickly cut off the chitchat, grasping his chair and sliding it next to Cheney's.

"Mr. Vice President, we know you only have a short time, and we have some very important matters to discuss," Clark said, according to a person who attended the session. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to just jump into the meeting." Cheney nodded, and Clark raced through a 10-minute summation of what Acxiom, a Little Rock firm that collects and sorts detailed consumer data on virtually every American, could do to aid the war on terrorism.

Cheney digested the presentation, which focused on verifying the identities of airline passengers, then peppered Clark and Acxiom lead executive Charles D. Morgan with questions about how to use the data without infringing on consumer privacy rules.


Seven months later, Acxiom won a Department of Homeland Security subcontract to help create CAPPS II, a passenger-screening database considered one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised. The government has delayed implementing CAPPS II, in part because of privacy concerns, but the contract was Clark's biggest success in his brief career as a Washington lobbyist.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1803&e=3&u=/washpost/a58300_2004jan28

The current thread is about Kerry, not Clark. Try to stay on topic.



:hi:

While Kerry was in Iowa, Clark was being bombarded with Kerry attacks about his lobbying. Flyers all over, Shaheen press conference.

Unlike Kerry, Clark made ALL records public, spoke about his lobbying with reporters, & MOST IMPORTANT, Clark never attacked Kerry on his insider connections.

He did challenge Kerry to open his records, but that's all.

I have always been ABB, but the more I learn about Kerry & the more Kerry supporters attack Clark, the more I am rethinking my position.

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please post only 4
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DU Moderator

Better get the story straight. Snipped timelines won't cut it. Old story about a crooked contributor who got his money handed back. All of the bunk that he wouldn't give it back till he got caught stuff is bunk. Many Democrats got Chungs money. No one kept it. Chung fled. End of story.

I think the story died because Chung was playing both sides. Just my impression. Anyhow the investigation by the repugs went nowhere. Ancient history. Good luck with the muck though.

Just asking...

He has said that he didn't recall meetting with Chung.

I'm not surprised. There was nothing exceptional about Chung. One of the thousands of lobbyists who try to push their way into the system. He was likely ignored and forgotten by a busy Sen. Kerry.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4121890/

In January 1998 he told the Boston Herald that the timing of the SEC meeting and the subsequent fund-raiser was "totally coincidental" and "entirely staff driven." He said the Beverly Hills event had been set up by a professional fund-raiser, and that he had never even met Chung until the night of the event. But congressional documents obtained by NEWSWEEK seem to tell a different story. "Dear Johnny, It was a great pleasure to have met you last week," Kerry told Chung in a handwritten note dated July 31, 1996. "Barbara told me of your willingness to help me with my campaign... It means a lot to have someone like you on my team as I face the toughest race of my career." That same day the Kerry fund-raiser faxed a memo to Chung that read, in part: "The following are two ways in which you can be helpful to John." No. 1 was "Host an event in L.A. on Saturday, Sept. 9th." (A Kerry spokesman acknowledged that the senator may have met with Chung prior to the fund-raiser, but not in his Senate office.)

What desperate destructiveness. Dean is the Democrats worst nightmare.

You won't be able to change the subject to Dean in the GE, you know.

I hope it's not for his sake, Newsweek has scooped him. He was planning a special section of his new book to drop a bombshell on Kerry. Too bad for Hannity if this was it... it'll be defused, explained, and forgotten by the time his book comes out. Could this be what Hannity was teasing?

It does look pretty bad for Kerry. Hey. If the people that like Kerry want me to consider him, if my candidate drops out, groovy. Do it based on the postitive things Kerry can do. How he'll give us our country back, and how he'll fix the problems Bush has created. How will Kerry fix the economy? But for people to try and tell me that Kerry is not an insider is just an insult to my intelligence. He just is. I don't think being a Washington Insider is a bad thing... there are plenty of good people who are, and some really smarmy ones that aren't. I think campaigns spend too much time attacking each other over indsider status, and spend too much time falling all over themselves to proclaim outsider status. It is WHAT the candidate has DONE with that status that matters..... I'll await further details of this story.

Most people won't understand why all the fuss about a campaign contribution from a shady character that was returned to him forthwith. But some like Hannity will try to make it stick so they can sell a book or sumpthin'.

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:Ym6wBMDznHUJ:commdocs.house.gov/committees/gro/hgo58752.000/hgo58752_0.HTM+%22john+kerry%22+%22johnny+chung%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

I commingled money from multiple sources into this account, and I did not intend for the donation to come strictly from Liu's funds. I also donated to John Kerry in this timeframe, but in my mind I had already obligated myself to contribute to Kerry back in July when his people arranged the meeting at the SEC for Liu Chao Ying and Mr. Yao. As I have said before, although I received money from many sources, I alone decided how and when to donate it, who to donate it to, and how much.

--do you not have a problem with John Kerry's helping out Liu Chao Ying with the SEC in expectation of contributions?

Let's air all dirty linen BEFORE the nomination.