Huang Accused Of ‘Espionage’ Congressman Says Information Was Passed To Indonesian Firm

A Republican congressman said Thursday that intelligence information showed that while employed at the Commerce Department, John Huang, who has become a central figure in the Democratic fund-raising scandal, passed classified government information to his former employer, Lippo Group of Indonesia.

Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., accused Huang of breaching U.S. national security and committing “economic espionage.”

The accusation is the first in which any government official has publicly alleged strong intelligence evidence that any figure in the fund-raising scandal passed along official secrets, an issue that is under investigation by the Justice Department and five congressional committees, including the House Rules Committee, headed by Solomon.

The accusation was leveled by Solomon in a statement issued by his office.

“I have received reports from government sources,” the statement said, “that say there are electronic intercepts which provide evidence confirming what I suspected all along, that John Huang committed economic espionage and breached our national security by passing classified information to his former employer, the Lippo Group.”

The statement did not give the sources of the electronic messages, when they were intercepted, the particular information Huang is suspected of disclosing or the identity of the “government sources” cited by Solomon. “I can’t go any farther than that,” his statement said.

Huang held a mid-level job at the Commerce Department before becoming a leading fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 presidential campaign. He left the committee last October, and, although he has denied through his lawyers that he is guilty of any wrongdoing, he has otherwise declined to comment about the mounting number of accusations against him, among them that he illegally funneled foreign money to the party.

At her weekly news conference, Attorney General Janet Reno was asked whether the new development would bring either a heightened inquiry into Huang’s activities or a new inquiry into Solomon’s disclosure of what the congressman described as intelligence information.

“I have just heard about the congressman’s comments,” Reno replied, “so I couldn’t really say one way or the other. People should not comment about pending investigations and pending prosecutions.”