Meet Dennis Cheng

27 Aug 2016

Vincent J. Curtis

Remember Charlie Trie?  How about Johnny Chung?  John Huang?  James Riady?

How about Maria Hsia?

Well, meet Dennis Cheng.

You haven’t met him yet because his name features prominently in those 33,000 emails that Hillary deleted and then BleachBitted as “personal.”  His name is only coming to light because of that new batch of 15,000 emails

Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, John Huang, James Riady, and Maria Hsia were involved in Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign finance controversy.

Trie was a Taiwan national who emigrated to the United States in 1974, and was responsible for providing big money to Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund.  He and his family also donated big money to the DNC.   Trie was convicted and sentenced to three year’s probation and four months home detention for violating federal campaign finance laws by making political contributions in someone else's name and for causing a false statement to be made to the Federal Election Commission.  The money was eventually returned.

John Huang was born on the Chinese mainland and fled to Taiwan at the age of four.  Huang was an employee of the Lippo Group and was a key fundraiser for the DNC in 1995, and raised some $3.4 million.  Huang visited the White House 78 times while working as a DNC fund-raiser.  James Riady visited the White House 20 times (including 6 personal visits to President Clinton).   Immediately prior to joining the DNC, Huang worked in President Clinton's Commerce Department as deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs. His position made him responsible for Asia-U.S. trade matters. His position at the Commerce Department gave him access to classified intelligence on China. While at the department, Huang met 9 times with Chinese embassy officials. Huang eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to reimburse Lippo Group employees' campaign contributions with corporate or foreign funds.

James Riady was convicted of campaign finance violations relating to the same scheme, and was heavily fined.  Shortly after Riady pledged $1 million in support of then-Governor Clinton's campaign for the presidency, contributions made by Huang had been reimbursed with funds wired from a foreign Lippo Group entity into an account Riady maintained at Lippo Bank and then distributed to Huang in cash.  In addition, contributions made by Lippo Group entities operating in the United States were reimbursed with wire transfers from foreign Lippo Group entities.  Both James Riady and his father had had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency.

Hang with me here.  Not too much more of ancient Clinton history.

Maria Hsia was born in Taiwan, and was a long time fund raiser for Al Gore, and business associate of John Huang and James Riady.   Hsia arranged for $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions through the Hsi Lai Temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple associated with Taiwan.  This money went to the DNC, and to the Clinton – Gore campaign. She was convicted 2000.

The His Lai Temple event became controversial because it was attended by the Vice President Al Gore. In an interview on the January 24, 1997 edition of the Today show, Gore said:  “I did not know that it was a fund-raiser. But I knew it was a political event, and I knew there were finance people that were going to be present, and so that alone should have told me, 'This is inappropriate and this is a mistake; don't do this.' And I take responsibility for that. It was a mistake.”  Big deal.  Ancient history.  A poorer version of Bill, who never because president.

But enough of old history.  We’ve moved on.  Meet the new history.

Dennis Cheng is Hillary Clinton’s national finance director, and according to newly released emails was the middle man between Hillary’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation.  Cheng was deputy chief of protocol at State while Hillary was Secretary.  Cheng then moved on to the Foundation.  After leaving State, but before joining Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign, Cheng was the Clinton Foundation’s director of development, and worked closely with Huma Abedin.

Among the batch of 15,000 newly released emails was one from November 2012, in which Cheng sent a nine pager to Huma Abedin that briefed her (and presumably, Hillary) on no fewer than 67 VIPs (i.e. donors) attending a Foundation dinner.

During Cheng’s three and a half year’s work at the Foundation, he built a donor base in excess of $246 million.  Cheng was described by an observer from Citizen’s United as “the bag man.  He’s the one that raised the money and also kept the donors happy.”  The observer further said that “Cheng would be right in the middle of some of these transactions that were going on between the Clinton Foundation and their donors and those that wanted access to the State Department and Secretary Clinton.”

Cheng’s name was barely mentioned in the emails released by Hillary because he was most often mentioned in those 33,000 deleted “personal” emails.  You know, the ones about yoga and Chelsea’s wedding.

When asked about Cheng’s two hats, one at State and the other at the Foundation, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that there was no impropriety.  There was nothing precluding State Department officials from having contact with Clinton Foundation staff.

No, not a bit.  They weren’t bound by a legal agreement like the one signed by their boss, Hillary.  The agreement Hillary made was supposed to maintain a “Chinese Wall” between her at State and activities of the Clinton Foundation.

I just found it curious at the number of people of Chinese extraction who have worked over the years financing for the Clintons.

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