WASHINGTON-A House Commerce investigations panel plans hearings beginning next week to question James Sasser, U.S. ambassador to China, former Federal Communications Commission chairman Reed Hundt and others in connection with a probe of whether Sasser and former Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight received illegal $1 million payments and engaged in improper influence peddling to help Tennessee developer Franklin Haney secure a 20-year, $400 million lease for the FCC’s new headquarters.
In addition, RCR has learned the subcommittee will hear from current FCC and General Services Administration officials. FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, general counsel under Hundt, is not among them.
The FCC is scheduled to begin moving into the Portals next month and complete the move by next March, despite lacking appropriations to cover $9 million in increased Portals rent.
Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, and House telecom subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) have advised the FCC to stay put.
The Portals lease ultimately could be voided if it is determined that it was entered into illegally. Also, congressional appropriators believe the Portals rent is too high and therefore a bad deal for taxpayers.
Communications lawyers, whose offices surround FCC headquarters in the busy downtown district, do not want the agency to move either.
The General Accounting Office, however, says the FCC should go forward with the move.
The current dilemma stems from GSA’s decision to terminate all current FCC leases.
With Congress having approved stop-gap funding through Oct. 9-which keeps the agency running on its current budget level after the current fiscal year ends Sept. 30-it remains unclear whether the FCC will get the additional money it needs to cover the Portals rent. The GSA is paying for the move.
“Unless something happens there could be furloughs,” said Liz Rose, an FCC spokesperson.
The House Commerce oversight and investigations panel, which launched the Portals probe late last year, has privately interviewed individuals involved with the Portals lease and questioned witnesses in public hearings recently.
The Justice Department, for its part, is looking into the $230,000 Haney contributed to Democrats in the 1996 election cycle that returned Clinton and Gore to the White House.
Haney, Knight, Sasser and Hundt are close associates of Vice President Gore. Gore’s office has maintained the vice president had nothing to do with the Portals lease. Knight and Sasser lobbied for the Portals lease on behalf of Haney, though Knight insists his work was limited to financing.
Congressional investigators, among other things, are curious about why-in their view-Hundt decided to embrace the Portals move after years of FCC balking against relocation. Hundt has denied any wrongdoing.
Moreover, Knight claims the $1 million covered about a dozen projects over three years. Loose accounting practices at Knight’s law firm-Wunder, Diefenderfer, Cannon & Thelen-have made it difficult for congressional investigators to follow the money trail and to determine whether Knight’s explanation is accurate or not.
With the record of evidence mounting, congressional investigators appear to view Haney’s $1 million payments to Knight and Sasser as increasingly suspect. Most recently, investigators have learned of a $500,000 payment from Haney to attorney John Wagster days after successful Portals negotiations with GSA were completed.
