Ex-Gore fund-raiser convicted

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal jury Thursday convicted a friend and political supporter of Vice President Al Gore for arranging more<br>than $100,000 in illegal donations during the 1996 presidential campaign.<br><br>The

Thursday, March 2nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal jury Thursday convicted a friend and political supporter of Vice President Al Gore for arranging more
than $100,000 in illegal donations during the 1996 presidential campaign.

The jury deliberated less than two days before finding Maria Hsia, who started raising money for Gore more than a decade ago, guilty of five felony counts, each carrying a five-year maximum prison term. No date has been scheduled for sentencing.

Gore called Hsia "a friend and political supporter" and said "it's a hard day for her," but the vice president declined further comment when asked about the verdict while campaigning in New York.

Republicans expressed surprise, suggesting that the Justice Department has failed to pursue the fund-raising scandal aggressively.

"I don't know who is more surprised -- me or the Justice Department," said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who headed up the
Senate campaign fund-raising probe and has criticized Attorney General Janet Reno for not seeking an independent counsel to
investigate administration higher-ups in the matter.

Reno defended the department's work, saying there have been prosecutions of a corporation and 21 people besides Hsia.

Defense attorney Nancy Luque, who has motions pending before the judge seeking an acquittal in the Hsia case, said: "The thing's
still alive. It's not dead yet."

Prosecutors alleged that Hsia tapped a Buddhist temple and some of her well-to-do business clients for money to reimburse straw
donors who were listed as the contributors in campaign records.

Hsia was charged with causing false statements to be filed with the Federal Election Commission. According to evidence presented in the case, $109,000 in reimbursed donations went to Clinton-Gore '96, the Democratic Party and the campaign of Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

Video footage was played at the trial showing the vice president attending the now-infamous donor event at a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee, ordered that the courtroom tape -- likely attack fodder on the campaign trail -- be kept out of the public domain until the trial's end.

When controversy erupted after the event, the vice president said he hadn't known he was attending a fund-raiser, that he thought it was community outreach. After documents turned up referring to the event in advance as a fund-raiser, Gore modified his characterization, saying he had thought it was finance-related.

Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson said it's time for the "Clinton-Gore Justice Department ... to get beyond the small-fry and take on the major players like Al Gore."

At the trial, former Democratic Party fund-raiser John Huang, the central figure in the campaign fund-raising scandal, testified that Hsia handed him an envelope containing $100,000 the day after he and Hsia discussed the fact that the event hadn't raised much
money, despite Gore's appearance. Much of the money was illegally reimbursed from temple funds.

Prosecutors presented evidence that the alleged reimbursement scheme extended to contributions for Kennedy's House campaign.
Witnesses testified that Hsia got five blank checks from the Buddhist temple and reimbursed five donors, including herself, in
connection with a temple fund-raiser that Kennedy attended.

Hsia's lawyers said there was no evidence that Hsia was aware of the reimbursements from the Gore fund-raiser, but prosecutors
introduced canceled checks suggesting that on three instances from 1993 to 1996 Hsia used temple funds to reimburse her own political
donations. Hsia did not testify at the trial, but her lawyers said the money was for public relations work Hsia had done for the temple.