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The star witness for the GOP, FBI Agent Jerry Campane, reminded us constantly that he was not being held to even the lowest standard of evidence as he laid out what he and Republican senators labeled a money laundering scheme, concocted by ex Chinese take-out owner Charles Yah Lin Trie, a friend of the Clintons and half the politicians in Little Rock and Washington.

It seems that Trie, who had little success in business ventures finally found his calling as an unpaid fundraiser for the President and the Democratic National Committee. Agent Campane methodically laid out the facts, but the facts didn't add up to proof.

Trie had a business associate -- nicknamed "Mr. Wu" who was based on the Portuguese island of Macau close to the China Coast. Wu financed some real estate ventures with Trie which didn't add up to much, but Wu and Trie also sought to elevate Trie's reputation in the highest Washington circles -- an attempt to curry favor and power by passing around some cash - not unlike most U.S. corporations, big labor and high-powered lobbying firms.

While Agent Campane was unable to prove much by courtroom standards, he did have a lot of "preponderance" evidence by way of wire transfers from various Wu holdings into Trie's several U.S. bank accounts from which money to the Democrats flowed. The problem with Campane's evidence was that Trie received nearly $1.3 million from Wu, et al, but only gave the pols a couple of hundred thousand plus some $500,000 to the President's legal defense fund.

Any American -- and Trie is an American citizen -- can receive money from abroad as income. In order to prove Trie was laundering money for Wu, the Senate and the FBI would have to show memoranda on the wire transfers or checks from Wu which explicitly stated the money was for U.S. political purposes. Of course this was not the case. But Campane is probably right. Wu wanted to be a big man in Washington, and Trie --with his presidential connections -- could offer Wu the biggest bang for his buck.

Senator Arlen Specter


Agent Campane, on loan to the Senate from the FBI stumbled a few times. Arlen Specter brought out the fact that Trie had been appointed to the President's Commission on Pacific Trade. Specter and Agent Campane tried to characterize the move as so special a dispensation from the President that it was unprecedentedly suspicious. Why? Because in order to get Trie on the Commission the POTUS had to increase it's size "adding an additional member" to the already full 15 member panel -- or so said Specter. Agent Campane, coached by the Pennsylvania Senator, said he'd never seen an executive order like that.

Agent Campane, on at least two occasions, made remarks that some in the Asian-American community may find offensive. First, Arlen Specter questioned him about a $20 thousand contribution from Fay Wong Co. - money transferred from the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank while Hong Kong was still a British Colony. Specter wanted Campane to say that Fay Wong was a mainland Chinese company. Campane said " I don't know if it's a Chinese Company, but it's certainly an Asian name"

Senator Levin offered Campane another opportunity to demonstrate the Republican penchant for Asian witch-hunting when asking the FBI man whether he had any proof that Charlie Trie had tried to influence policy in the White House. Campane replied that Trie had little influence on the Trade Commission but once submitted a "laughable" report, written by someone else who was an Asian-American and used "poor syntax." While Campane most likely meant nothing by these ethnic characterizations, Senator Akaka seemed to squirm at his remarks.

The problem with the Wu/Trie story is that it could be told about hundreds of Americans who contribute heavily to one party or another. Many people in the U.S. derive income from foreign sources. Does that mean that every time a wire transfer is followed by a check to the DNC or RNC it's "money laundering?" I doubt it. But that's the picture Agent Campane painted, going so far as to label Trie a money-launderer to the delight of the Republican Committee members who picked up on his unproved indictment and ran with it for the entire day.

Agent Campane could not explain why Trie received more than $900 thousand from "Mr. Wu" (a western pseudonym) yet made political contributions of only a few hundred thousand. Some Democrat Senators suggested that Trie might have been legally and legitimately paid by Wu for services rendered, and then chose to spend some of that money on feathering his own reputation at the White House.

Added to Campane's inconsistency, only about $72,000 was contributed with a chronological connection to Wu's money transfers for Trie.

Maybe the biggest gaff was Agent Campane's seeming lack of knowledge that the FBI itself had done a background check on Trie just before he was appointed to the Presidential Commission.

Senator Durbin

Campane said first he wasn't aware that any check had been made on Trie because other members of the Commission hadn't mentioned that they had undergone such checks. But Senator Durbin called him on it, first informing the FBI agent that his own agency had performed such a background check and then asking him whether he found it "curious" that Trie would place himself in the position of being investigated by the nation's top cops while engaging as a money launderer or Chinese spy. Campane, unbelievably, replied that in his capacity he had no access to the background check files on Trie, yet the Senators had the report sitting in front of them and Agent Campane is supposed to have been their lead investigator.

In the end however, Agent Campane's testimony on Trie was damaging. What we're left with is an upward mobile Taiwanese immigrant who learned early on that money buys power and influence in Washington and state capitols across the nation. Trie got his training in Arkansas, not known for its aboveboard political apparatus. Somehow Trie convinced Wu that he could give Wu access to the highest levels of U.S. government. Wu could have made a deal with Trie to pay him $1 million a year to guarantee Wu access to the President and various U.S. congressmen. Or, Trie, could have been simply laundering money for Wu. Neither story has been proved or disproved.

Senator Durbin, the star Democrat in yesterday's hearings said it best to Agent Campane: "Before a jury would convict Charlie Trie of money laundering -- as you did today -- wouldn't they need a lot more evidence?"

Campane responded, "I hope so."

© 1998, 1997, American Politics Journal Publications Inc.