WASHINGTON -- Voting strictly along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee recommended last night the third presidential impeachment inquiry in U.S. history, after Republican investigators laid out 15 offenses that could ultimately end Bill Clinton's presidency.
The committee's momentous vote came after a grueling day of contentious debate over the gravity of Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky and allegations that he lied under oath and tried to obstruct justice.
All 21 committee Republicans voted to convene a formal impeachment inquiry, and all 16 Democrats opposed it.
With the full House expected to ratify the committee's recommendation by Friday, Rep. Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, still held out the possibility of bipartisan agreements once impeachment hearings begin -- possibly by mid-November.
"The 20th century has often been referred to as the American century," Hyde said. "It is imperative we be able to look back at this episode with dignity and pride, knowing we have performed our duty in the best interest of the country. In this difficult moment in our history lies the potential for our finest achievement -- proof that democracy works."
Republicans rebuffed Democrats' attempts to limit the scope and duration of impeachment proceedings, even as Hyde promised to try to wrap up the committee's work by January. On a party-line vote, the committee rejected a Democratic proposal that would have established a definition for an impeachable offense and then convened an inquiry only if the charges met that standard. Under this proposal, the inquiry would have ended by Thanksgiving.
The Republicans also rejected a Democratic proposal to limit any inquiry to the Lewinsky matter. As adopted yesterday, the impeachment resolution allows the panel to investigate any wrongdoing deemed potentially impeachable, from the alleged misuse of FBI files to the firing of White House travel office staff to fund-raising improprieties during the 1996 presidential campaign. Both parties would have broad subpoena powers.
Neither the party-line vote nor the vast philosophical divisions between Republicans and Democrats on the deeply partisan Judiciary Committee came as a surprise. The klieg lights and live television coverage only encouraged the panel's 37 members to stretch out the debate, which proceeded under the portraits of Hyde and Peter W. Rodino, the former New Jersey Democratic representative who chaired the Watergate impeachment hearings a quarter-century ago.
More startling was the blistering case laid out by the committee's chief Republican investigator, David Schippers, a former federal prosecutor and lifelong Democrat who was hired for his credentials as a respected and nonpolitical figure.
Schippers detailed "substantial and credible evidence of 15 separate events directly involving President William Jefferson Clinton that could -- could -- constitute felonies, which in turn may constitute grounds to proceed with an impeachment inquiry."
Worthy of impeachment
Schippers parried Democrats' assertions that all the charges stem from a sexual relationship and are therefore inconsequential. The alleged misconduct, Schippers said, "though arising initially out of sexual indiscretions, are completely distinct and involve allegations of an ongoing series of deliberate and direct assaults by Mr. Clinton upon the justice system of the United States."
And he asserted that the charges go to the heart of the nation's system of governance and are thus worthy of impeachment.
"If lying under oath is tolerated and, when exposed, is not visited with immediate and substantial adverse consequences, the integrity of this country's entire judicial process is fatally compromised and that process will inevitably collapse," Schippers said.
After a measured hourlong presentation, the investigator abruptly broke off to speak not as a lawyer but as a "father and grandfather." Expounding passionately on the rule of law, Schippers implored the committee:
"You're not being watched only by the individuals in this room, or by the vast television audience. Fifteen generations of Americans, our fellow Americans, many of whom repose in military cemeteries, are looking down and judging what you're doing today."
In response to Democratic requests, Hyde, an Illinois Republican, quickly struck Schippers' extraordinary personal statement from the official record.
Schippers' case for an inquiry was both wider and shallower than the potentially impeachable offenses laid out by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr a month ago. The investigator expanded to 15 Starr's list of 11 possible grounds for impeachment.
But Republican lawyers dropped two of Starr's most explosive charges involving abuse of presidential power -- charges that had carried the echo of Watergate. At the same time, they added new allegations that the president took part in a conspiracy to cover up his actions and to conceal Lewinsky's own "felonies."
A lesser charge
Although Republicans for weeks have spoken of perjury charges, Schippers presented the less-serious charge of giving false testimony under oath. That distinction would absolve the committee of having to prove that the president intended to lie, did so knowingly, and that the lie was material to Paula Corbin Jones' sexual misconduct lawsuit or to the case being developed by the independent counsel.
But Democratic aides said that while Schippers' allegation would be easier to prove, it could also bolster their case that such an offense would not warrant impeachment.
And they were delighted that Schippers declared Lewinsky's testimony to be "both substantial and credible." Because Lewinsky testified that no one asked her to lie or promised her a job in exchange for her silence, Democrats said, Schippers had undermined his most serious allegations of obstruction of justice.
The committee's chief Democratic investigator, Abbe Lowell, complained that Schippers had "subdivided" Starr's list of 11 impeachable offenses to come up with 15. Lowell distilled the 15 counts down to one: lying about an embarrassing sexual relationship between the president and Lewinsky.
'Often overstated' charges
"The charges are often overstated, based on strained definitions of what is an offense under the law, are often not supported by the actual evidence and are sometimes the product of zeal to make a case rather than state the law," Lowell said.
Joe Lockhart, Clinton's spokesman, said yesterday: "We don't believe there's anything here that reaches the level of an impeachable offense."
Democrats continued to find support in public opinion. A CBS News poll over the weekend found that 56 percent of Americans do not want the Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment proceedings. Thirty-eight percent favor such proceedings.
Believing they have the public's support, Democrats declared that the accusations against the president do not warrant the wrenching process of impeachment.
In that process, the Judiciary Committee would decide whether to approve articles of impeachment, similar to the indictments of a grand jury. If the full House approved any of those articles, a trial would be conducted in the Senate. The votes of two-thirds of the senators would be required to remove Clinton from office.
But Judiciary Committee members of both parties have been playing to their core supporters, with Republicans listening to constituents who are demanding impeachment and Democrats hearing from voters who want the nation to move on.
Opposing views
"We are witnessing nothing less than the symptoms of a cancer on the American presidency," said Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, Clinton's fiercest critic on the committee, who called for impeachment. "If we fail to remove this cancer, it will expand to destroy the principles that matter most to us."
But Rep. Robert Wexler, a committee Democrat, his voice rising with emotion, said:
"The president had an affair. He lied about it. He didn't want anybody to know about it. Does anybody reasonably believe this amounts to subversion of government? Congress has never removed a president from office. Is this where we want to set the bar for future presidents? I plead with this committee to end this madness."
Chronology shown to judiciary panel
In his report to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, the Republicans' lead investigator, David Schippers, outlined 15 charges that may constitute grounds for impeaching President Clinton. The first charge was that Clinton may have been part of a conspiracy with Monica Lewinsky and others to obstruct justice and the due administration of justice.
To illustrate this accusation, committee members were shown a chronology of the events that occurred after Clinton's deposition in the Paula Jones case last January. During that testimony, "it became more and more apparent to the president that Ms. [Paula Corbin] Jones' attorneys possessed a lot more specific detail than the president anticipated" about Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, according to Schippers. "When the president returned to the White House, the calls began."
January 17, 1998
Saturday
4: 00 p.m. (approximately): THE PRESIDENT finishes testifying under oath in Jones v. Clinton, et al.
19 p.m.: Vernon Jordan places a call to the White House from a cellular phone.
5: 38 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Vernon Jordan at home.
7: 02 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Betty Currie at home but does not speak with her.
7: 02 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT places a call to Mr. Jordan's office.
7: 13 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT contacts Betty Currie at home and asks her to meet with him on Sunday.
January 18, 1998
Sunday
6: 11 a.m.: THE PRESIDENT learns about the existence of the
Tripp tapes.
11: 49 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones the White House.
12: 30 p.m. (approximately): Vernon Jordan has lunch with Bruce Lindsey. Lindsey informs Jordan about the existence of the Tripp tapes.
12: 50 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Vernon Jordan at home.
1: 11 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Betty Currie at home.
2: 15 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones the White House on his cellular phone.
2: 55 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones THE PRESIDENT.
00 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT meets with Betty Currie. He tells her that he was questioned at his deposition about Monica Lewinsky, and he suggests that Ms. Currie could "see and hear everything" that occurred when Ms. Lewinsky visited with him.
5: 12 p.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the
message, "Please call Kay at home."
6: 22 p.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the
message, "Please call Kay at home."
7: 06 p.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the
message, "Please call Kay at home."
7: 19 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Cheryl Mills at the White House Counsel's Office.
8: 28 p.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Call Kay."
10: 09 p.m.: Monica Lewinsky telephones Betty Currie at home.
11: 02 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Betty Currie at home.
January 19, 1998
0$ Monday -- Martin Luther King Day
7: 02 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Kay at home at 8: 00 this morning."
8: 08 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Kay."
8: 33 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the
message, "Please call Kay at home."
8: 37 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Kay at home. It's a social call. Thank you."
8: 41 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Kay is at home. Please call."
8: 43 a.m.: Betty Currie telephones the President from home.
8: 44 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Kate re: family emergency."
8: 50 a.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Betty Currie at home.
8: 51 a.m.: Betty Currie pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Msg. from Kay. Please call, have good news."
8: 56 a.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Vernon Jordan at home.
10: 29 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones the White House from his office.
10: 35 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Nancy Hernreich at the
White House.
10: 36 a.m.: Vernon Jordan pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Mr. Jordan at [number redacted]."
44 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Erskine Bowles at the
White House.
10: 53 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, Frank Carter.
10: 58 a.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Vernon Jordan at his office.
11: 04 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the
White House.
11: 16 a.m.: Vernon Jordan pages Monica Lewinsky with the message, "Please call Mr. Jordan at [number redacted]."
17 a.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the
White House.
12: 31 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones the White House from a cellular phone.
1: 45 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Betty Currie at home.
2: 29 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones the White House from a cellular phone.
2: 44 p.m.: Vernon Jordan enters the White House. He meets with THE PRESIDENT, Erskine Bowles, Bruce Lindsey, Cheryl Mills, Charles Ruff, Rahm Emanuel and others.
2: 46 p.m.: Frank Carter pages Monica Lewinsky with message, "Please call Frank Carter at [number redacted]."
4: 51 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Betty Currie at home.
4: 53 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Frank Carter at home.
4: 54 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Frank Carter at his office. Mr. Carter informs Mr. Jordan that Monica Lewinsky has replaced Mr. Carter with a new attorney.
4: 58 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the White House Counsel's Office.
4: 59 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Cheryl Mills at the White House Counsel's Office.
5 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the White House Counsel's Office.
5 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Charles Ruff at the White House Counsel's Office.
5: 05 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the White House Counsel's Office.
5: 09 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Cheryl Mills at the White House Counsel's Office.
5: 14 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Frank Carter at his office.
5: 22 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the White House Counsel's Office.
5: 22 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Bruce Lindsey at the White House Counsel's Office.
5: 55 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Betty Currie at home.
5: 56 p.m.: THE PRESIDENT telephones Vernon Jordan at his office.
6: 04 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Betty Currie at home.
6: 26 p.m.: Vernon Jordan telephones Stephen Goodin, an aide to THE PRESIDENT.
Pub Date: 10/06/98