|
Clinton issues impeachment stance as Republicans press for witnesses
Updated January 11, 1999
2:00 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — White House lawyers argued Monday that the impeachment charges against the president should be dismissed, saying the accusations "do not permit the conviction and removal from office of a duly elected president."
But Clinton's lawyers won't force a vote on dismissal at the outset of the trial, officials said.
"The charges in the articles do not rise to the level of `high crimes and misdemeanors' as contemplated by the Founding Fathers, and they do not satisfy the rigorous constitutional standard applied throughout our nation's history," Clinton's attorneys wrote in answer to the Senate's trial summons. "Accordingly, the articles of impeachment should be dismissed."
In the impeachment response, which was due by noon Monday, the lawyers said the president "denies that he made perjurious, false and misleading statements before the federal grand jury on Aug. 17, 1998." Further, it said the president "denies that he obstructed justice" either in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case or in the Monica Lewinsky grand jury investigation.
Read the full text of the White House response.
Clinton has acknowledged that his behavior with Lewinsky was improper, but "the charges in the two articles of impeachment do not permit the conviction and removal from office of a duly elected president," his lawyers said.
If Clinton were convicted, he would be the first elected president in U.S. history to be removed from office. The only other president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson, assumed the office as vice president, following the assasination of Abraham Lincoln.
While arguing the charges should be cast aside, the lawyers have decided not to make a motion before the trial starts requesting dismissal, bowing to Democratic lawmakers' wishes to begin the proceeding in bipartisan fashion, White House officials said.
The officials said the president's lawyers would offer no pretrial motions, and instead were ready to proceed to opening presentations, set for Thursday. House prosecutors have until the end of the day to make any motions.
The White House officials said the president's lawyers, or a Senate Democratic ally, would likely make a motion to dismiss the charges after the opening presentations.
Meanwhile, Vice President Al Gore predicted Monday the Senate would conclude that Clinton should not be removed from office.
"What the president did was wrong," Gore told The Associated Press. "He's acknowledged that, asked for forgiveness. But what he did falls far short" of misbehavior warranting removal from office. "And I'm confident the Senate will feel likewise."
The 13-page document released by the White House vigorously rejected the charges against Clinton, addressing the particulars of the two articles of impeachment.
Specifically, the president's lawyers argued that neither article met the constitutional standard for conviction, that they were too vague and that they were flawed because each contained more than one charge.
Because Article I would allow senators to vote to convict on any one of several charges, the lawyers said, there was "the real possibility that the president could be convicted even though he would have been acquitted if separate votes were taken on each allegedly perjurious statement."
"Article II sweeps too broadly and provides too little definite and specific identification," according to the response. "Were it an indictment, it would be dismissed."
House prosecutors met Monday in smaller groups to prepare their own motions and to rehearse their opening presentation, set to begin Thursday. They will have up to 24 hours, which could span three days, to make their case.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the lead prosecutor, said the 13 Republicans were going over their statement to make sure it was "coherent and comprehensive."
Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would make opening statements after initial remarks by Hyde. McCollum said "I seriously doubt" the House will need the full 24 hours.
Sensenbrenner, Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., McCollum and Reps. James Rogan of California and Ed Bryant of Tennessee would present the evidence and Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., and others would explain how the charges meet the standards for impeachable offenses, congressional sources said.
A vote on any dismissal motion would not come until after the prosecutors and the White House present their cases to the jury of 100 senators and take questions from the senators. The president's team will also be allotted 24 hours, and senatorial questioning could take another 16. The process could take several weeks.
The decision to call witnesses also will follow the initial presentations. Republicans and Democrats are divided on the need or wisdom of that step.
"It seems to me it is hard to have a trial without witnesses," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
But Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., warned that "you could get into a quagmire, which would be very lurid, which would not be a dignified ending to this sad chapter and would not add enough evidentiary value to outweigh the negatives."
The 13 managers say they must have witnesses to properly present their case.
Hutchinson, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that they could limit the witnesses to about six. Among then, he named Lewinsky; the president's secretary, Betty Currie; and Clinton friend Vernon Jordan, who helped Lewinsky get a job.
"We do not want to get into graphic details. We want to talk about the obstruction of justice," Hutchinson said.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said on CNN's "Late Edition" that if Republicans force the acceptance of witnesses in a partisan vote, the bipartisan spirit that brought senators together on a format for the trial "could degenerate very quickly."
"We know the facts," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said on CBS. "I think we are ready now to present the evidence and make a decision."
But Sen. John Chafee, a moderate Republican from Rhode Island, argued that both parties in the Senate can show "common sense" in their approach to witnesses. He disagrees with Democrats' contention that allowing witnesses will spin the proceedings out of control. Chafee told CNN that "a limited number" are needed to clear up discrepancies in testimony.
Moderate Republicans are again the ones to woo; in the House, they swung against Clinton. But the Senate prides itself on how different it is from the House, particularly in terms of bipartisanship.
Chafee said getting 100 Senators to agree to the terms of the preliminary trial resolution was an "extraordinary" achievement, and he expressed confidence that bipartisanship would continue.
Democrats have 45 seats in the Senate, more than enough to defeat a vote to remove Clinton from office, which requires a two-thirds majority. But trial procedure motions, such as a motion to dismiss, require only 51 votes to pass.
Most Democrats say they prefer that Clinton stay in office but want Congress to approve a strong resolution censuring him for his actions in the Lewinsky matter.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told NBC she is working on a censure motion, saying that if Clinton is not removed from office, "there should be something before the body."
White House spokesperson Jim Kennedy said Clinton plans to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress on Jan. 19 as scheduled, even though the trial will be under way. "We have no intention of being diverted from that," he said.
Court TV's Aldina Vazao Kennedy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| 
Full Coverage