ABC Evening News open - 1977-09-09

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:01] Good evening. Our top stories. A former

[0:03] US attorney charges the Carter

[0:05] administration concealed information

[0:07] about Bert Lance's finances from the

[0:09] Senate. President Carter says he knows

[0:11] nothing about it.

[0:12] >> 15 men are killed by a firing squad in

[0:15] Idiamin's Uganda. And South Korean

[0:17] businessman Tungsten Park says he won't,

[0:20] at least for now, return to the US to

[0:22] answer bribery charges. from Europe

[0:24] tonight. We'll also have stories on a

[0:26] terrorist trial which has ended and a

[0:28] terrorist gang which still holds its

[0:30] hostage. Harry, the big question in the

[0:34] inquiry into the financial affairs of

[0:35] Bert Lance has been, is he the best

[0:37] qualified man to be budget director? Now

[0:40] the emphasis is shifting to the

[0:41] question, why didn't all the

[0:42] irregularities disclosed in recent days

[0:45] come up at Lance's confirmation hearings

[0:47] in the Senate? Dan Courtz reports

[0:48] today's developments.

[0:51] The former US attorney in Atlanta today

[0:53] levels still another serious charge in

[0:55] the Lance case. I charge that the

[0:58] officials that some officials of the

[1:00] Carter administration withheld and

[1:03] thereby concealed the FBI background

[1:05] report and the information it contained

[1:07] from the Senate committee in January.

[1:10] John W. Stokes, whose request to stay in

[1:12] his job was rejected by the Carter

[1:14] administration, said he gave information

[1:16] about Lance's bank overdraft to the FBI

[1:18] for the Carter transition team, but it

[1:21] was not passed on to the Senate

[1:22] committee that confirmed Lance. Just

[1:24] before Lance's nomination, Stokes

[1:26] decided the information did not warrant

[1:28] prosecution. But he said today it might

[1:30] have changed the senator's minds about

[1:32] Lance. On Capitol Hill, where controller

[1:34] of the currency John Heyman underwent a

[1:36] second day of stiff questioning before

[1:38] the Senate Government Affairs Committee,

[1:40] some members indicated that they feel

[1:42] the same way. Senator Hines of

[1:44] Pennsylvania also raised the question of

[1:46] how the FBI reports were handled. And

[1:48] Senator Danfort of Missouri, asked if a

[1:50] letter of recommendation from Heyman's

[1:52] predecessor, the acting controller, did

[1:54] not amount to fraud. Senator Percy of

[1:57] Illinois warned Lance that when he

[1:59] appears next week, he should be prepared

[2:01] to deal with charges that he himself

[2:02] misled the committee about his debts and

[2:04] his financial dealings. So more and more

[2:07] the tangled web of Lance's affairs is

[2:09] threatening to ensh many other people as

[2:11] well. Dan Courtz, ABC News, Washington.

[2:16] This is Sam Donaldson. President Carter,

[2:18] who this week has tried to avoid public

[2:20] discussion of the Bert Lance affair,

[2:22] made an exception today when the

[2:23] question of cover up was asked. You were

[2:25] saying a former US attorney in Atlanta,

[2:27] a man named Stokes, says that people in

[2:30] your administration withheld FBI reports

[2:32] from the committee on Bert Lance. Is

[2:35] that true? Not as far as I know.

[2:41] The president's denial was made even

[2:43] stronger by press secretary Jodi Pal,

[2:45] who said nothing was ever withheld the

[2:47] committee asked for. Pal acknowledged

[2:49] that the FBI reports were not

[2:51] volunteered, but said that was a common

[2:53] policy that applied to all the nominees.

[2:55] As to the future, Pal denied once again

[2:57] that the fix is in for Lance to resign

[2:59] after he testifies. But he did suggest

[3:02] for the first time that the president

[3:04] would have to make a decision on the

[3:05] whole matter somewhere down the line.

[3:08] And asked whether Lance's ability to

[3:09] carry on hasn't already been impaired,

[3:12] Pal replied carefully, "We are aware of

[3:14] the difficulties." Lance himself was

[3:17] maintaining a stiff upper lip.

[3:19] >> I want to have a chance to present my

[3:21] case fairly to the American people and

[3:24] that's what I intend to do next

[3:25] Thursday. I hadn't thought about

[3:28] resigning.

[3:29] I've been this to fight to the end,

[3:32] whatever that end may be.

[3:34] >> Despite his stiff upper lip and the

[3:36] White House denials, the rest of

[3:37] official Washington seems to believe the

[3:39] end can only be Lance's resignation. Sam

[3:43] Donaldson, ABC News, the White House.

[3:46] South Korean businessman Tungsten Park

[3:48] says he's surprised and totally

[3:50] disappointed at his indictment by a

[3:52] federal grand jury in Washington and

[3:54] charges of conspiracy to bribe US

[3:56] congressmen. In Soul Korea today, Park

[3:58] was asked whether he'll go to Washington

[4:00] to answer those charges.

[4:02] So long as there's a atmosphere where uh

[4:07] the press still trying to try me in

[4:12] their own terms

[4:14] and uh as long as uh uh such a thing as

[4:19] the surprise indictment uh coming my way

[4:23] uh I consider this not as uh an

[4:25] improvement uh in the uh uh uh

[4:32] the atmosphere of this uh the atmosphere

[4:34] of Som has been worsened and uh I don't

[4:37] think I ought to