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| For Immediate Release | |
| Oct 23, 1997 | Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
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Clinton Administration Admits Videotapes, Other Evidence About Foreign Trade Mission Trips Sold for Political Contributions Illegally Removed From Commerce Department The Reno Justice Department has agreed to end its obstruction and produce to Judicial Watch sixty-three (63) additional taxpayer-financed videotapes and other evidence which further detail foreign trade missions and other events organized by late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to meet Clinton Administration and Democratic National Committee fundraising goals in the 1996 elections. The Department previously was forced to release thirty-one (31) videotapes of the trade trips. However, the Reno Justice Department also now admits that other videotape and photographic evidence was removed from the Commerce Department in 1997 and taken to a private "Ron Brown Library," which U.S. News & World Report, and some other press sources, say does not exist. Judicial Watch, is the non-profit watchdog group that discovered John Huang and cracked the campaign finance scandal. The newly available tapes were part of a cache of government documents ordered by U.S. District Court to be given to Judicial Watch in its-ongoing case against the Clinton Commerce Department. That case has uncovered massive, conclusive evidence that government offices and services were sold by the Clinton Administration in return for campaign contributions in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 600, and other laws. Lawyers working under the direction of Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder failed to produce the videotapes for more than two (2) years, and over the last two (2) weeks had been strenuously resisting production of the materials, despite the fact that the Clinton Justice Department has previously assured the Court that they would be produced. It was only after Judicial Watch yesterday sought an immediate court order for access to the previously secret tapes that the Justice Department capitulated on some tapes. However, the Reno Justice Department also confirmed what Judicial Watch had long suspected: other evidence, including videotapes of taxpayer-financed campaign fundraising foreign trade missions was illegally removed from the Commerce Department in 1997, after the Court ordered it to be produced. Judicial Watch intends to continue to press vigorously for the return of the missing evidence, which is also government property, so that it can be made available to the public. In toto, the photographic and other evidence withheld by the Clinton Commerce Department ranges in the thousands. Larry Klayman, Chairman and General Counsel noted: "These new tapes and photographs, when taken in conjunction with the White House videos and other evidence amassed by Judicial Watch, will paint a more complete picture for the American public of the illegal political activities of the Clinton Administration, all paid for at taxpayer expense." |
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