Former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown died on April 3, 1996, in a plane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Thirty- four persons accompanying Brown on the trade mission also died in the crash. Due to the efforts of Judicial Watch we now know beyond a reasonable doubt that seats on Brown's Commerce Department trade missions were sold to raise funds for the Democratic National Committee and the 1996 Clinton/Gore Campaign. There is overwhelming evidence that Bill and Hillary Clinton knew of and approved this improper and illegal fundraising scheme [1].
Even more serious than the sale of public property for campaign contributions is the likelihood that transfers of American technology, approved and overseen by Ron Brown's Commerce Department, breached national security. Bernard Schwartz, head of Loral Corporation and a major donor to the DNC, accompanied Brown on a 1994 trade mission to China. During this trade mission Brown set up a meeting between Schwartz and a Chinese government official. This meeting led to a transfer of American missile technology to the Chinese that is now the subject of a congressional investigation [2].
At the time of his death Ron Brown was under subpoena to produce documents relating to the sale of seats on trade missions to Judicial Watch for its suit against the Commerce Department. Nolanda Hill, a friend and business partner of Brown, testified under oath that Brown had shown her a collection of such documents in an ostrich skin portfolio. These documents were withheld from Judicial Watch in violation of the subpoena and a FOIA request. Just before his death Brown reportedly said of his mounting legal troubles, "I am too old to go to jail. If I go down, I'll take everyone else down with me" [3].
