Byron York: When a foreign adversary meddled in a presidential election
by Byron York
| September 09, 2018 08:02 PM
In the 1990s, a hostile foreign power meddled in our presidential election. There were serious questions about whether one party's candidate -- the beneficiary -- was complicit in the meddling, or at least looked the other way while it was going on. The candidate fiercely resisted the appointment of a special prosecutor, then known as an independent counsel, to investigate. Finally, amid only moderate media interest and public concern, it all faded away.
The country doing the meddling, of course, was China, and the presidential candidate was Bill Clinton, who was already in the White House and seeking re-election in 1996.
Looking back on press accounts from the era, it's striking how brazen a number of the players were as they went about the task of funneling illegal foreign donations to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The names have been mostly forgotten now -- Charlie Trie, John Huang, Johnny Chung -- but the record remains.
Chung, for example, who was born in Taiwan and became a U.S. citizen, was a prolific Democratic fundraiser. Between 1994 and 1996, he gave $366,000 to the DNC and visited the Clinton White House more than 50 times.
In 1995, Chung gave a $50,000 check to First Lady Hillary Clinton's chief of staff at an event on the White House grounds. His memorable explanation: "I see the White House is like a subway -- you have to put in coins to open the gates."
In May 1999, Chung testified before the House Government Oversight Committee. He said that in 1996, during the Clinton re-election campaign, he met with the head of Chinese military intelligence in the basement of a restaurant in Hong Kong. "We really like your president. We hope to see him re-elected," the Chinese spy, Gen. Ji Shengde, told Chung, according to Chung's testimony. Gen. Ji continued: "I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party."
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-when-a-foreign-adversary-meddled-in-a-presidential-election
