Senate Foray Into House Turf Unnerves Some Lawmakers

WASHINGTON — As a general rule, the House and the Senate operate almost as though the other body does not exist, as if the invisible line dividing the Capitol in half were a solid concrete wall.

So it has raised more than a few eyebrows that the Senate committee looking into campaign fund-raising improprieties has reached across the jurisdictional divide to ask questions about alleged wrongdoing by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House donations inquiry.

In a meeting last week that was veiled in secrecy, two investigators for the Senate Democrats questioned Mark A. Siegel, a former lobbyist for the government of Pakistan who has accused Burton of retaliating against him because he refused to raise $5,000 in contributions for Burton’s campaign. A Republican investigator for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee monitored the meeting and asked some questions of his own.

Committee Democrats, playing down the interview, said that they were merely inquiring into Siegel’s already-well-known allegations against Burton and have not launched a formal inquiry into the episode. Besides, they noted, the Senate committee, chaired by Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), needs the consent of its Republican majority to issue a subpoena against Siegel or anyone else.

“There was a one-time, informal interview that took place to ensure that all the facts were out,” said one Democratic committee source. “That’s that.”

Siegel, who participated voluntarily, did not reveal any new information to the Senate investigators, his attorney, Plato Cacheris, said.

But the decision to interview Siegal has perturbed some Senate Republicans, who consider it an attempt to obfuscate the serious charges of foreign-linked contributions to the Democratic National Committee. And the interview was controversial even among committee Democrats, who wondered whether it was wise to sidestep the long-standing tradition that one chamber steers clear of the actions of the other.

After all, some wonder, if the Senate begins looking at the House, will the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee soon strike back and begin poking around into the fund-raising practices of senators?

“For all we know, Burton’s staff is preparing 45 subpoenas” for every Democratic senator, said one Democratic aide who opposed the decision to interview Siegel. “It would be like mutually assured destruction.”

There already has been plenty of partisan sniping in the fund-raising investigations. Democrats in both the House and Senate have been struggling, with some success, to expand the investigations beyond possible Democratic wrongdoing to include any GOP money-raising missteps.

The relatively broad nature of the inquiries, coupled with the Senate’s newfound interest in Burton, has caused unease in both chambers on both sides of the aisle. “It’s heightened nervousness,” said a House Democratic aide. “People are starting to look over their shoulders and say: ‘Could I get drawn into this?’ ”

But Burton, whose aides declined to comment on the Senate’s activities, has already been drawn in.

A Justice Department task force recently opened an investigation of Siegel’s charges, which were published in the Washington Post in March--just before a contentious vote on the budget for Burton’s inquiry.

Burton has acknowledged mentioning to the then-Pakistani ambassador last year Siegel’s failure to raise $5,000 in donations. But Burton has denied Siegel’s charge that he threatened to retaliate against Siegel’s lobbying firm. Burton has noted Siegel’s ties to the Democratic Party and characterized the controversy as a partisan smear.

“When I assumed this responsibility, I expected to be the target of some unfair and malicious attacks,” Burton said in a statement in March. “However, I did not expect them to come this soon.”

Zafar Hilaly, a top aide to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad, sent Siegel a memo last year saying that Bhutto was “distressed” to learn that “Burton says you were unable to keep certain promises regarding fund-raising for his reelection campaign and that you were also very unhelpful in other matters.”

Siegel wrote Hilaly back, accusing Burton of shaking him down. “I should tell you,” he wrote, “that I worked in Washington for over 25 years and have never been shaken down by anyone before like Dan Burton’s threats. No one has ever dared to threaten me into contributing money and no one has ever followed through on such threats by contacting my clients.”

Siegel’s charges, however, are disputed. Husain Haqqani, a former Bhutto press secretary, questioned Siegel’s allegations last month in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. And Lanny Davis, a special White House counsel who once represented Pakistan, said that Siegel did not mention the Burton flap to him at the time.

To sort the matter out, FBI agents served Bhutto with a subpoena earlier this month requiring her to appear before a federal grand jury hearing evidence on the case. It is uncertain whether Bhutto, who was lecturing in the United States at the time, will comply.

But the subpoena has angered House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who defended Burton last week at a closed meeting of Republican lawmakers and accused the Justice Department of conducting a one-sided inquiry.

At the meeting, according to persons in the room, Gingrich said that he would urge Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.), whose committee controls the purse strings of the Justice Department and FBI, and Judiciary Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), whose panel directly oversees the two agencies, to confront Justice Department officials about the perceived unfairness.