Commerce Department trade mission controversy

It refers to the alleged selling of seats on United States federal planes going on international trade missions, for the purpose of raising campaign contributions.

No official charges were ever made in conjunction with the allegations but the Commerce Department did change its policies regarding the selection of participants for such missions so they would not be politically based.

In May 1995, following a search in response to Judicial Watch's FOIA requests, the Department produced approximately 28,000 pages of nonexempt information and withheld about 1,000 documents as exempt.

Disputes arose between the parties over the adequacy of Commerce's search, and Judicial Watch charged that some Department officials had destroyed or removed responsive documents.

[4] However a 1996 analysis by the nonpartisan but liberal-leaning Center for Public Integrity found that Democratic contributors only filled a third of the available trip seats, and many of those made contributions to Republicans as well.

"[10] Responding to the original criticism, in March 1997 new Commerce Secretary William M. Daley instituted new departmental policies intended to prevent politics from being part of the trade missions selection process.

[12] Hill testified in federal court in March 1998 that Brown had told her that trade mission plane seats were sold to people willing to make campaign contributions.