by WorldTribune Staff, April 15, 2018
Former FBI Director James Comey in his book “A Higher Loyalty” compares President Donald Trump’s effort to secure loyalty from his staff during the presidential transition period to the actions of a mob boss.
Comey also boasts he is the first official to make such a comparison.
That would be wrong, according to investigative reporter Sara Carter, formerly of The Washington Times and a frequent Fox News contributer.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh “likened the Clinton campaign and failure of witnesses to respond to congressional inquiries to the mafia” during a 1997 hearing on the Chinagate investigation, Carter reported.
The Los Angeles Times broke the Chinagate fundraising scandal involving Democratic National Committee (DNC) finance vice chairman John Huang, who was suspected of obtaining massive amounts of Chinese cash for the Clinton campaign.
“In fact, by the time the congressional hearings had concluded roughly 120 people connected to the Clinton campaign had either fled the country or invoked the 5th Amendment to avoid answering questions,” Carter noted in an April 13 report.
In his 1997 congressional testimony, Freeh responded to a question about all who left the country or invoked the 5th.
“Have you ever experienced so many unavailable witnesses in any matter in which you’ve prosecuted or in which you’ve been involved,” then-House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-IN, asked Freeh during a hearing.
“Actually I have,” answered Freeh. “I spent about 16 years in organized crime cases in New York City and many people were frequently unavailable,” he testified.
Carter noted that “As of yet, only four people have pled the 5th in current congressional investigations involving the FBI’s handling of the Trump campaign and investigations involving the alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. None so far have fled the country, Congressional investigators said.”
In 1998 the Senate Government Affairs Committee report on the Clinton scandal found “strong circumstantial evidence” that millions of foreign dollars had been funneled illegally from China to influence the 1996 election. In the end, the DNC was required to return more than $2.8 million in illegal or improper donations from foreign nationals, according to Congress.
Chinagate figure Johnny Chung testified before Congress that a top Chinese general had told him: “We really like your president. We hope he will be re-elected. I will give you $300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to . . . your president and the Democratic Party.”
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Comey’s mafia allegation compared to Freeh’s testimony on Chinagate’s ‘disappearing witnesses’ added by World Tribune on
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