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Republicans vote down Democratic amendments, witnesses can be videotaped or testify live
Updated January 28, 1999
7:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — Republicans pushed through a plan to allow videotaped depositions and live testimony in the Senate Thursday well while voting down Democrats' amendments that aimed to curtail the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
The Republican plan, which passed 54-44, allows House prosecutors to videotape the depositions of Monica Lewinsky, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal. Those depositions could be viewed in the Senate and witnesses could be interrogated in the Senate well. Furthermore, if the House managers uncover new material, the plan allows for new witnesses.
Depositions will begin Monday and senators will be given access to discovery materials as soon as Tuesday. A senator from each party will preside over the depositions. Blumenthal will go first, then Lewinsky will be deposed Tuesday, and Jordon Wednesday.
The Republicans, according to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, still hope to end the proceedings by noon Feb. 12, but left open the possibility of a longer trial.
"I think that this is a good plan," said Lott, following the voting. "Videotaping is a modern technology."
Lott said seeing someone testify is better than relying on "cold, numbered pages." He added that it would be "indefensible" not to make videotapes of the depositions available to senators in this day and age, he said.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., told Court TV the Senate will probably make "relevant portions" of the depositions public.
"We think that ought to be open, that ought to be part of the trial record," said Smith.
Smith acknowledged that conviction is unlikely, comparing the Senate situation to that of a "hung jury." Nonetheless, he said the president's trial must go on and evidence must be presented, adding that he would "like to vote for his innocence if we can establish that," said Smith.
Smith said he also hopes the trial stays on track to end on Lincoln's birthday. Once the trial is over, he said, "that's when we can start rebuilding the Republican party."
Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle had proposed two amendments: the first one would have keep videotaped questioning of witnesses secret and the second one would have cut to four hours of closing arguments and a final vote on acquittal or conviction. The first amendment went down 54-44, and the second by 55-43. Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate and Democrats hold 45.
The voting came after hours of sparring between Republicans and Democrats over the way to conduct the final stages of the trial.
Lott put the rival plans to votes with a minimum of explanation, which prompted one of his colleagues to ask about details. But Chief Justice William Rehnquist declined to answer Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
"The parliamentarian tells me it is never the function of the chair to interpret a resolution," Rehnquist said.
Republicans wanted to leave room for a vote on "fact finding"
that would state formally that Clinton had committed offenses, even if he wasn't to be removed from office. The Democratic scenario would have prevented Republicans from even submitting such a document for a vote.
"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.
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said the fact-finding measure, proposed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, "would be constitutionally fraught with ... peril." He argued senators, "should not be able to do by majority vote what the Constitution contemplates by a two-thirds vote."
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, defended the proposal, saying the finding would be simply "an expression of opinion of Congress" and therefore could pass constitutional muster.
White House officials have indicated that the defense may not call its own witnesses if three conditions are met: the prosecutors fail to elicit significant new testimony, the Senate decides against live testimony and the GOP scraps the idea that Clinton could be found guilty but not removed. Republicans have left all three of those scenarios on the table.
Two senators missed Senate roll call votes Thursday: Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. Allard rushed home to be with his ailing father and Mikulski has been ill with an inflamed gall bladder.
At the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart called for a swift end to the trial and said that in the Senate, "the Republican majority has to answer to the country of why they want to continue to extend this process."
The developments came one day after Republicans used their majority muscle to reject a call for immediate dismissal of the charges against Clinton, and to order subpoenas for the three witnesses requested by House managers. The prosecutors whittled down their list in order to placate Senate Republicans who wanted a speedy resolution to the trial.
But the 44 votes posted by Clinton's defenders on each of the two roll calls Wednesday may well have been more significant, showing the president had more than enough support to gain eventual acquittal on the two articles of impeachment.
The witness issue has been a controversial one throughout the trial, and ironically, it appeared that each side — the White House and House prosecutors — wanted to preserve its right to seek additional evidence or witnesses if something unexpected turned up in the questioning of Lewinsky, Jordan or Blumenthal.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a former prosecutor, was asked by reporters at one point Thursday whether he could imagine anything new arising from the depositions.
"I could imagine it, but I doubt it would happen," Specter said.
Court TV's Aldina Vazao Kennedy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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