What’s for Dinner?

While reportedly under investigation for her ties to an influential pro-Israel lobbying organization, California Rep. Jane Harman last month hosted a private dinner for the group that was attended by two top Bush administration officials—Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

The Sept. 13 dinner took place at the home of Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and was attended by over 120 top financial backers of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The highlight of the evening was a panel discussion in which Harman played the host, questioning Negroponte and Chertoff about Mideast developments, international terrorism and homeland-security issues, according to an AIPAC official.

The dinner was hardly an unusual one for AIPAC. The group often arranges such elite pow-wows at the homes of senior members of Congress and government officials (one in the mid-1990s was hosted by then Vice President Al Gore) as a way for AIPAC to both demonstrate its political clout and to provide a perk for major donors.

But last month’s event raises new questions about recent reports that the FBI was investigating whether Harman, an outspoken supporter of Israel, last year may have agreed to improperly influence an ongoing Justice Department probe of AIPAC. The reports of the probe came just a few days after Harman released a politically sensitive House report that included important new details about the investigation surrounding the activities of disgraced former GOP Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham.

The low-level probe into Harman was launched last year after department officials received a tip that Harman was at the same time seeking the assistance of big AIPAC donors to lobby House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to stay on as the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee (and become the panel’s chairman if the Democrats retake control of the House in next month’s elections.)

Harman has dismissed the investigation, first reported last week by Time magazine’s Web site, as “laughable,” and no evidence has surfaced of any quid pro quo, or even any Harman effort to influence Justice. A Harman aide on Wednesday pointed to Negroponte and Chertoff’s presence at Harman’s home as further evidence that the inquiry couldn’t possibly have been a serious one. “It makes no sense,” said the aide, who asked not to be identified while talking about sensitive matters. “If there was a serious investigation going on, and there were concerns about Jane Harman’s reliability and intentions, why would the administration agree to send these two heavy hitters?”