Federal Marshals Serve Subpoena For Huang

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 28) -- Federal marshals on Sunday finally served a subpoena for Democratic fund-raiser John Huang., But the elusive Huang didn't attend a federal court hearing today and it's still a question when he will sit down for a deposition in a civil suit against the Commerce Department.

Huang's attorney, John C. Keeney Jr., accepted the subpoena for him, but at a hearing today, the attorney asked U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth to limit the scope of Huang's question to prevent political grandstanding by Judicial Watch, the conservative group which filed the lawsuit.

Keeney said the questions should be limited to Huang's work at the Commerce Department and argued that Judicial Watch has a "political purpose" in seeking to question Huang.

Larry Klayman, the group's general counsel, told Lamberth: "We're not looking to grandstand this deposition...The issue here is public disclosure." Klayman urged that a transcript or videotape of Huang's deposition should be made available to the press and public.

Huang has become a major embarrassment to the Democrats in the waning days of the '96 presidential campaign. He raised $4 million to $5 million for the party, but was relieved of his fund-raising duties in mid-month, after questions arose about money flowing to the party from an Indonesian banking family. Democrats also were forced to return an improper, $250,000 contribution to a South Korean company.

Republicans have lambasted Huang's role in soliciting overseas contributions to the Democrats, and accused the news media of less fervor in hunting for the absent Huang than if he had been a Republican.

"If this was a Republican presidency, John Huang, having taken what is now over a million dollars in questionable foreign money, would have been hounded," House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) declared on "Fox News Sunday." "You'd have had cameras staked outside his house, staked outside his office, 24 hours a day."

Judicial Watch wants to question Huang, a former Commerce Department employee, to determine whether late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown used overseas trade missions to raise money for the Democrats.

Federal Marshals Serve Subpoena For Huang

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