"This is not some incident that will pass in the night; this will cause a fundamental change in our relations with China," Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There will be retribution."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010416/aponline012935_000.htm
"Relations cannot continue on the current basis," Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010417/aponline023243_000.htm
04/17/01
BY ROBERT COHEN AND ROBERT RUDOLPH
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Federal authorities have conducted a search of Sen. Robert Torricelli's home as part of their extensive criminal investigation into his 1996 campaign fund-raising activities and his personal financial dealings.
The Justice Department search for evidence at the senator's residence comes as part of a continuing grand jury probe that so far has led to seven guilty pleas from donors who made illegal contributions to Torricelli, the subpoenaing of thousands of documents and the targeting of three campaign aides.
A search of the home of sitting U.S. senator is considered highly unusual, and could signal a new phase in the three-year probe, according to a well-placed source.
"They are rummaging through his life," said another individual familiar with the investigation. "They are looking for anything he did wrong."
The New Jersey Democrat, meanwhile, has continued to raise and spend large sums of money on criminal defense lawyers for himself and for some of his current and former aides caught up in the investigation.
The latest report released yesterday shows that from Jan. 1 through March 31, Torricelli's legal defense fund raised $264,950 from donors and spent $165,638. Since 1999, Torricelli has spent more than $746,000 from his legal defense fund and his campaign war chest to pay legal bills.
Torricelli has publicly confirmed that his home was searched by investigators, but his attorneys and aides yesterday refused to provide any details. Specifics regarding the search are under seal.
"What we did is, my attorneys escorted people in from the Southern District, to take them through, to assure them that are no other papers, there are no other documents, there are no other items," Torricelli said during a televised interview.
"We are trying in every way we can to be cooperative with this, in every way that is reasonable," he told NBC on Sunday.
Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in Manhattan, said he could not talk about any aspect of the Torricelli investigation. Dale Liebach, a spokesman for Torricelli, declined to comment, while Ted Wells, one of two high-profile criminal trial attorneys recently hired by the senator, did not return repeated telephone calls to his New York office.
Police in Englewood, where Torricelli has a home, referred all questions about a search to the FBI, which also declined comment. It is believed that the search took place in the last few weeks.
In an interview this month, Wells said he has been in discussions with the prosecutors from the Southern District of New York who recently took over the case from the Justice Department's now-disbanded Campaign Financing Task Force.
"We intend to have an open dialogue with the prosecutors in the Southern District, and to persuade them ultimately that the investigation of Sen. Torricelli should be formally closed," said Wells.
Others knowledgeable about the probe said the New York prosecutors are thoroughly reviewing the evidence amassed by the task force, interviewing witnesses on their own, gathering new information and "doing their homework."
This has included discussions with David Chang, the New Jersey businessman who is believed to be a chief witness against Torricelli.
"It's a live investigation," said the source.
Torricelli has been the target of one of the most sweeping campaign fund-raising investigations ever directed at a major U.S. political figure. Although neither Torricelli or any of his aides has been charged to date, the investigation has broadened from allegations of campaign and fund-raising abuses to include the senator's personal financial dealings.
Torricelli has remained optimistic in his public comments and said he does not expect to be charged with any wrongdoing.
In his latest legal defense fund filing, Torricelli reported raising money from 60 individuals.
Among the contributors were Cherry Hill attorney and former Democratic state finance chairman Lewis Katz, a top fund-raiser for former Gov. Jim Florio. Katz, the onetime chairman of Kinney Parking and now a principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, gave the Torricelli defense fund the legal limit of $10,000, as did his son, Drew.
Also contributing to the fund were Irma Mas, widow of late Miami Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, who gave $5,000, as did Hassan Nemazee, a New York investor and large Democratic Party donor who was rejected by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a Clinton administration nominee to be ambassador to Argentina.
Other large contributors were Stephen Cloobeck, president of Diamond Resorts International in Las Vegas, who gave $10,000; Bernard Rapoport, a Texas insurance magnate and longtime Clinton donor who contributed $10,000; Alfonso Fanjul, a major Florida sugar grower who gave $5,000; and Leo Hindery, former chief executive of Global Crossing Ltd., a company building a global fiber-optic network, who gave $10,000.
The defense fund paid $70,000 in legal fees to Torricelli attorney Ralph Lancaster Jr., a former independent counsel who investigated allegations of wrongdoing against former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman.
The fund also paid $5,000 in consulting fees to Susan Holloway, Torricelli's former wife, and $15,000 to Adam Crain, a former aide who has been informed by the Justice Department that he is a target of the probe. Both received the fees for fund-raising services.
Legal fees were also paid for a number of former aides, including campaign manager David Plouffe and deputy campaign treasurer Gioia M. Cassidy.
Staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.
