When Haney became inolved with the project in mid-1995, he hired Knight to help renegotiate an existing lease. Subcommittee probers question whether it was a sweetheart deal. The terms, for example, allowed Haney to sell tax-exempt bonds, backed by government rent payments, to pay for the building's construction. Because of the FCC's reluctance to move into the building, which is located in an isolated pocket of Washington, the building remains empty. Haney claims the fixed date was agreed to in exchange for dropping legal claims against the government for causing an 18-month delay on the project.
Federal law forbids the payment of contingency fees on government contracts.
Haney and Knight, who have consistently denied any wrongdoing, did not attend today's meeting, but on June 17 their lawyers repeated those denials. Most contempt citations ultimately result in Congress getting the documents it seeks. In 1996, the last time a floor vote on a contempt ruling was scheduled, then-White House counsel Jack Quinn turned over documents the House Government Reform Committee had subpoenaed for its investigation into the firing of White House travel office personnel. Lawyers for Haney and Knight both claimed that the documents in question were protected either by attorney-client privilege, or by a District of Columbia bar association ethics rule forbidding the release of documents a client claims are confidential. Democrats on the Commerce panel, including Michigan Representative John Dingell, refused to go along with the GOP majority.