Trial of Former Gore Fund-Raiser Hsia Opens

WASHINGTON —  Democratic fund-raising abuses of 1996 reverberated in a federal courtroom Monday as Maria Hsia, a former longtime fund-raiser for Vice President Al Gore, went on trial for election law violations.

Jurors were told by chief prosecutor Eric Yaffe that Hsia, a Los Angeles immigration consultant, “willfully and deliberately” concealed the source of illegal political donations that were gathered at a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights and given to the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign “to advance her own business and political interests.”

But Nancy Luque, Hsia’s defense attorney, argued that Hsia was not responsible for inaccurate campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission in 1996 and that “she never lied to anybody or caused anyone to lie.”

The Hsia trial, being handled by the Justice Department’s campaign finance task force, is expected to last three to four weeks in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman. If convicted on five charges of causing false statements to be filed with the FEC, Hsia, 49, could face a maximum prison term of 25 years and more than $1 million in fines. However, federal sentencing guidelines could sharply reduce the punishment.

More than $100,000 was raised through Gore’s visit to the Hsi Lai Temple in April 1996, but much of it was eventually returned by the Democratic National Committee as possibly tainted by election law violations. Gore’s appearance at the temple luncheon surrounded by saffron-robed nuns and monks came to epitomize the fund-raising scandal that became the subject of Senate hearings and criminal prosecutions by the government.

When the appearance was first disclosed, Gore said that he believed it was a “community outreach” event. Later, however, he acknowledged that he knew it was “finance-related.”

Gore’s opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley, recently charged that the vice president has failed to explain his role in the 1996 abuses. Gore, who was not charged with an offense and is not scheduled to appear as a witness at Hsia’s trial, has decried Bradley’s remarks as “personal vilification.”

In all, the DNC eventually returned $3 million to 1996 donors because it suspected the funds originated illegally from abroad.

Prosecutor Yaffe told jurors in his opening statement that Hsia used a variety of “straw parties,” including temple monks, nuns and volunteers, Hsia’s immigration clients and Hsia herself, to make the contributions. Those people, most of whom “had no interest in contributing to a political campaign,” then were reimbursed with funds from the temple’s corporate entity, the International Buddhist Progress Society, the prosecutor said.

Hsia, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, knew her actions were illegal since she learned about campaign finance regulations when she first began raising money for Gore in the 1980s, Yaffe said.

“Time and time again . . . she made a conscious decision to undermine the federal electoral process,” Yaffe said. “And when a person [flouts] these regulations, the system breaks down.”

Starting with a fund-raising event at the Century Plaza Hotel in September 1995, Hsia arranged $10,000 in Democratic donations through 10 straw parties who signed maximum $1,000 checks, the prosecutor said.

Yaffe said that Hsia “never told anyone in the Gore campaign that the true source of funds for this $10,000 table at the Century Plaza was a foreign national, and foreign nationals cannot contribute to U.S. election campaigns.”

John Huang, a top Democratic fund-raiser in the 1996 campaign, will testify that Hsia never informed him about illegal contributions when she gave him an envelope with $100,000 in checks at the Buddhist Temple luncheon, the prosecutor said.

Huang, of Glendale, has been cooperating with federal investigators and pleaded guilty last August to a felony charge of conspiracy in connection with his fund-raising activities.

Hsia also is charged with causing a false statement to be filed with the FEC in connection with $5,000 she allegedly provided through straw parties for the 1996 reelection campaign of Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.).

Luque said evidence at the trial will demonstrate that Hsia played no role in filing inaccurate or false reports with the election commission and that federal election law is often confusing and imprecise.

“Reports to the FEC don’t ask where people who contributed got their money,” Luque said. “She didn’t know whether the money was their own or not. It’s like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ”

The defense attorney added: “Not one witness is going to tell you that Maria Hsia lied or caused anyone else to lie. She never broke any laws or intended to break any laws. She only exercised her right to free speech by supporting Democrats and asking other people to support Democrats.”

Judge Friedman dismissed the core of the government’s case in 1998, saying that prosecutors had used “Alice in Wonderland” logic to claim Hsia was responsible for the false filings. But an appellate court reinstated the charges, saying that it did not understand Friedman’s reasoning.

Last June, the Justice Department’s campaign task force prosecuted Hsia on tax fraud charges in Los Angeles federal court, but the proceeding ended in a mistrial. The department decided against retrying her on tax charges in view of the upcoming trial on campaign finance violation charges in Washington.