Nuns On The Run

Two Buddhist nuns were indicted Wednesday for failing to appear as government witnesses at last month's trial in which Democratic party fund-raiser Maria Hsia was convicted for arranging more than $100,000 in illegal donations during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Justice Department spokesman John Russell said the pair, Venerables Yi Chu and Man Ho, fled the country after being given immunity for their testimony. They are believed to be in Taiwan.

A federal grand jury here charged them with contempt of court for failing to appear. In January, a judge had refused their bid to quash the subpoenas, originally issued in May 1998. The indictments brought to 24 the number of people charged by the department's campaign finance task force.

The nuns' attorney, Mark Flanagan, said he would seek to have the indictment dismissed because prosecuting them "for not appearing as witnesses in a trial that the government won serves absolutely no legitimate purpose."

The nuns "assisted in the government's investigation. They were available in the United States to testify at trial for over 15 months preceding their reassignment to Taiwan and assumption of demanding religious duties," Flanagan added.

The two nuns were to testify about one of the most well-known elements of the Hsia case - an April 29, 1996, event at their temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif.

Vice President Al Gore, then running for re-election with President Clinton, attended but says he didn't know it was a fund-raising event. On various occasions, he has said he thought it was community outreach, finance-related, and donor maintenance.

Gore's role in that event has continued to dog his presidential campaign this year.

Hsia was convicted of five counts of causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission in a scheme the Justice Department said was designed to conceal the true source of illegal donations through the use of "straw" donors.

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

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.

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 Kenedy 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.