Chertoff was the first person ever to mention The Lippo Group in a public hearing (while questioning Webb Hubbell), which caused Al Damato and Paul Sarbanes to go instantly ballistic.
That of course led to years of investigations and coverups about Chinese political contributions and the selling of American missle technology to the PLA (People's Liberation Army), among many other things.
In retrospect I believe Chertoff was fishing with Hubbell, taking what he knew to be an isolated single fact (Hubbell's $200,000 Lippo retainer) and looking for some sort of reaction. He got one. Chertoff was the guy who dropped the bomb.
I remember some of his questioning and he was like a pit bull. If anybody but Damato had been chairman of that committee, he might have found out something. Damato was a usful idiot for the dems. Instead the entire hearing became a farce and set the stage for all the coverups that followed and lent victim status to the Clintons and their henchmen. IMHO