|
Senate votes to call witnesses, rejects motion to dismiss
Updated January 27, 1999
8:06 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — Senate Republicans Wednesday pushed through a motion, 56-44, to depose witnesses in the presidential impeachment trial. The Senate also rejected, 56-44, the motion to dismiss the perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Bill Clinton.
Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate and Democrats hold 45. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., was the only senator to vote outside party lines.
Feingold said that despite "serious problems" with the case against President Clinton, it is only fair to give House prosecutors more time to attempt to prove the impeachment allegations.
But Feingold said just because he voted against dismissal, doesn't mean he will vote to convict. "I have not reached a decision on that question," Feingold said in a written statement. But, he added, "to dismiss this case would ... improperly short-circuit this trial."
Though the Democrats lost, the votes showed that Republicans lack the two-thirds majority, 67 votes, needed to convict Clinton and remove him from office.
"The president will not be removed from office," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said moments after the vote. "It is time to move on."
Presidential lawyers may skip their own witnesses
if prosecutors don't break new ground, advisers said.
While reserving their options, White House lawyers have
discussed calling no witnesses and demanding no new evidence if
three conditions are met: the prosecutors fail to elicit
significant new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two others, the
Senate decides against live testimony and the GOP scraps an idea
that Clinton could be found guilty but not removed, officials said.
Short of new revelations, one legal adviser said the White House
was comfortable to just argue the facts "and bring this to a
vote."
Such a move would be contrary to the instincts of a normal
criminal defense team. But this is no ordinary trial or even a
typical congressional proceeding requiring a majority of votes to
win. Clinton needs only 34 votes to be acquitted on charges of
obstruction of justice and perjury.
Since the vote on motions, Democrats and Republicans have been trying to
iron out a timetable and a road map for the rest of the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters late Thursday afternoon the two parties had exchanged offers and he said he was hopeful for agreement by
Thursday on a timetable for a final vote on the articles of
impeachment by mid-February.
He suggested the witness depositions of Monica Lewinsky, Sydney Blumenthal and Vernon Jordan could take place over the weekend or Monday, and he left open the question of whether the White House might then decide it wanted witnesses of its own.
Lott says the plan would have to allow time for closing debate
among the senators — which he says could take as long as three
days.
Special Counsel Greg Craig said that the House prosecutors had failed to make their case and "today's events make clear the votes are not there to convict and remove the president from office."
"Any proceedings from this day forward only serve to delay the final resolution of this matter and run counter to the best interests of the Congress, the presidency and the American people," Craig said. He would not confirm nor deny whether the White House would call any of its own witnesses.
White House officials who spoke condition of anonymity said the White House will pursue a three-pronged strategy. Presidential spokesmen will make the public argument that fairness demands the president have access to all the evidence kept from him so far and the chance to interview witnesses, too. But they'll
suggest that witnesses are unnecessary because Democratic senators
already have the votes to acquit Clinton.
Secondly, White House aides want to fiercely fight a proposal
from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would break the final
decision into two votes Ä one a ``finding of fact'' that Clinton
committed the crimes he is charged with and a second on removal.
"We think it is unbelievably unfair and outrageous to suggest
that there be a finding of fact based on a one-sided and incomplete
record of Kenneth Starr without giving the White House a full-scale
and extensive discovery," said Lanny Davis, a former White House
special counsel who continues to advise the legal team.
The final prong of the strategy, officials said, is a compelling
closing argument that will hold Democrats in line.
After the Senate voted, Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who had
previously expressed misgivings about witnesses, said he believed it was "premature to dismiss this case at the present time.".
He said he believed the prosecution "should be allowed the opportunity to demonstrate whether there is new and significant information that would justify live testimony."
Apart from Feingold, Democrats were unanimous that whatever
Clinton's wrongs, they weren't impeachable offenses. "However
reprehensible that conduct was, I do not believe it is
constitutional grounds for removing from office a president elected by the people," said North Dakota's Byron Dorgan.
The three witnesses will face private questioning in sessions likely to be videotaped, so that all senators could watch the depositions and determine whether to bring the witnesses in for live testimony.
House managers wanted to call about a dozen witnesses, but the promise of just three helped Senate Lott win over wavering Republicans seeking a quick exit to an unpopular trial.
Sen. John Breaux, D-La., told Court TV that Wednesday's votes will be the "last partisan votes you're going to see." He said senators will show more independence when they cast their final vote, whether to acquit or convict. Breaux predicted some Republicans would vote for acquittal.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Court TV that the trial could be concluded by Feb. 5 — even if live witnesses are allowed.
There would have to be another vote, if witnesses are to be admitted into the well of the Senate.
McConnell said the Senate would review depositions next Monday and then decide if live testimony would be necessary to clarify certain points. Senators could question the three witnesses in one day, said McConnell, who sat through the judicial impeachment trial of Judge Harry Claiborne. Back then, McConnell said, the Senate interviewed 17 witnesses in one day.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Tex., said she will propose a motion to open the final deliberations on the articles to the public.
"The American people should see how we came to our decisions," Hutchinson said.
The precedents the 106th Senate sets will influence future impeachment hearings, Hutchinson said, and therefore, the deliberations should be "part of the historical record."
House managers said Lewinsky would be questioned about her relationship with Clinton, his gifts to her, and her job search in New York. Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., promised that Lewinsky would not be asked to describe any explicit details of her sexual relationship with Clinton.
Jordan would be questioned about his participation in Lewinsky's job search, and Blumenthal would be asked to testify, as he did before the grand jury, that Clinton, calling Lewinsky a "stalker," told Blumenthal that the intern came on to him and he refused her.
The prosecutors chose to leave Oval Office secretary Betty Currie off the list because they felt her testimony was not clear enough on the retrieval of subpoenaed gifts the president had given Ms. Lewinsky, a source told the Associated Press.
Court TV's Aldina Vazao Kennedy and Catherine Heins and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| 
Full Coverage