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Clinton dismisses House trial memo
Updated January 12, 1999
5:00 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — The House Republicans' brief for the impeachment trial is an overblown account that "reads like a cheap mystery," President Clinton's spokesman said Tuesday. The White House will offer its own rebuttal on Wednesday, he added.
The two sides filed briefs Monday that blended arguments over Clinton's guilt or innocence with predictions of how the case would influence future judgments of presidential misconduct.
Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart focused Tuesday on what he called the House's "constantly shifting" of its version of the charges and its reliance on "hyperbole and overblown rhetoric."
"It reads like a cheap mystery," he said of the brief laying out the House case for the Senate trial. "The discussions about sinister plots is something you would expect to read in a novel rather than in a document by the House of Representatives."
House memo
At one point in the lengthy House brief, the 13 House prosecutors, or managers, argue that evidence and testimony must be viewed as a whole.
"Events and words that may seem innocent or even exculpatory in a vacuum may well take on a sinister, or even criminal connotation when observed in the context of the whole plot," wrote House managers in the report.
The House brief cited as an example Monica Lewinsky's statement that "No one ever told me to lie; nobody ever promised me a job."
"When considered alone this would seem exculpatory," the brief said. "`However, in the context of other evidence, another picture emerges. Of course no one said, 'Now, Monica, you go in there and lie.' They didn't have to. Ms. Lewinsky knew what was expected of her. Similarly, nobody promised her a job, but once she signed the false affidavit, she got one."
Read the House memo (PDF).
The White House's 13-page submission Monday was a formal answer to the Senate summons; a more detailed brief is due by Wednesday.
Read the White House response.
In their brief, a road map for oral arguments that begin with the House presentation Thursday on the Senate floor, prosecutors said that if Clinton is not convicted of the perjury and obstruction of justice charges, "the bar will be so high that only a convicted felon or a traitor will need to be concerned."
Clinton's lawyers contended that his attempts to conceal an extramarital affair with the former White House intern "do not permit the conviction and removal ... of a duly elected president."
"The charges ... do not rise to the level of 'high crimes and misdemeanors' as contemplated by the founding fathers," the White House.
Both sides tried to hone their presentations Monday, knowing that the openings will take on an even greater significance if the Senate does not allow witnesses later in the trial.
Each side has 24 hours on the clock, with the White House to follow when the prosecutors are done. The Senate will not run all night — each side can opt to take three 8-hour days, for example.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who plans to begin the prosecutors' opening presentation, said this was "not the time to get angry with the Senate" over its decision to delay his demand for witnesses. He said the House managers wouldn't "want to hang our hat just on the question of witnesses."
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.
The House called the trial "a defining moment for the presidency as an institution, because if the president is not convicted as a consequence of the conduct that has been portrayed, then no House of Representatives will ever be able to impeach again and no Senate will ever convict. ...
"How far can the standard be lowered without completely compromising the credibility of the office for all time?"
White House response
The White House submission Monday was a 13-page answer to a Senate summons that sought a response to the two articles of impeachment approved by the House. The House submission was a 105-page trial brief. The White House has until Wednesday to counter with its own trial brief rebuttal.
The president's filing denied guilt on the perjury and obstruction charges. "President Clinton denies that he made perjurious, false and misleading statements before the federal grand jury on Aug. 17, 1998," the brief said. "President Clinton denies that he obstructed justice in either the (Paula) Jones case or the Lewinsky grand jury investigation."
The president's lawyers also 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."
Not surprisingly, the two sides had opposite interpretations of the same events that consumed Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr for nine months — and the Congress since then.
For instance, the White House said the president "denies that he encouraged Monica Lewinsky to execute a false affidavit in the Jones case" that denied a sexual relationship. The defense cited Ms. Lewinsky's statement that "No one ever asked me to lie."
The House countered that when Clinton suggested to Ms. Lewinsky that she could submit an affidavit in the Jones case to possibly avoid testifying, "Both parties knew that the affidavit would need to be false and misleading to accomplish the desired result."
Larry Flynt
Meanwhile, a strange sideshow unfolded as Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt appeared on CNBC and held a news conference Monday night to allege hypocrisy in past personal conduct of Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., one of the 13 House managers presenting the impeachment case in the Senate.
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Larry Flynt has made the conduct of Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) an object of scrutiny.
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Flynt released an affidavit from Barr's ex-wife Gail that said fiteen years ago he paid for an abortion she had and never opposed it. In testimony given under oath during their divorce proceedings in 1986, Barr said he had objected to it. In her affidavit, Gail also claimed that she believed Barr began an affair, with a woman he subsequently married, before her own marriage with him ended in 1986.
In a statement, Barr denied Flynt's allegations and said he was "deeply saddened" by them. He added, "I have steadfastly worked throughout the impeachment debate to focus attention on substantive issues like perjury and obstruction of justice, and away from lurid personal allegations."
Flynt and his brother Jimmy Flynt are scheduled to go on trial next week in Cinncinati, Ohio to face obscenity charges after a 14-year-old boy purchased pornographic videos at the Hustler Magazine and Gifts store owned by the brothers. Flynt was convicted of obscenity twenty-two years ago for selling Huster in Cinncinati but the decision was overturned on appeal.
Larry Flynt's attorneys have asked that the trial be postponed for two months so that he can have surgery to correct a urological problem common among paraplegics. Flynt has been in a wheelchair since he was shot in 1978, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. A judge has set a hearing on the proposed delay for Wednesday.
State of union
Despite pleas from some in Congress for a postponement, Clinton plans to go ahead with his annual state of the union address to a joint session of the House and Senate. The congressional leadership has not officially asked Clinton to delay his address.
White House aides are emphatic that the show will go on Jan. 19 even though that is the day Clinton's lawyers are scheduled to open his defense in the Senate trial.
Many of the president's political advisers view the speech as an immensely important opportunity to convince Americans that he can still lead. A high job approval rating is his best defense against a Senate conviction, they say, and Clinton's poll ratings generally improve after State of the Union addresses.
"Our objective is to show continued vitality and energy," said White House deputy chief of staff Maria Echaveste. "We have a lot of work to do."
Whether Clinton directly addresses the Lewinsky matter when he faces lawmakers and TV cameras in the House chamber is largely a personal decision and "one that most likely will be put off until the end," press secretary Joe Lockhart said. The president didn't mention the scandal last year, days after it surfaced, and his poll numbers jumped.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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