Time: Sat Mar 15 16:16:55 1997
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	Sat, 15 Mar 1997 13:02:07 -0700 (MST)
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 16:03:30 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS UNDERWAY: Give your Reps a Call
  (fwd)

<snip>  
>>   The Washington Times 
>>   Published in Washington, D.C. March 14 - 16, 1997 
>>
>>   Barr seeks impeachment
>>   inquiry on fund raising
>>   
>>     _________________________________________________________________
>>   
>>   By Jerry Seper
>>   THE WASHINGTON TIMES
>>     _________________________________________________________________
>>   
>>   
>>   The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has been asked to begin
>>   an impeachment inquiry of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore
>>   amid accusations that a growing campaign-finance scandal has
>>   compromised national-security interests and corrupted the country's
>>   foreign-policy decisions.
>>
>>   Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican, made the request this week in a
>>   three-page letter to Chairman Henry J. Hyde, challenging -- among
>>   other things -- Mr. Clinton's use of the White House to "amass his
>>   political campaign war chest" and Mr. Gore's ties to questionable fund
>>   raising "on federal property and with federal resources."
>>   "The cumulative effect of such a series of systemic abuses of the
>>   political process ... points precisely toward theories of impeachment
>>   law invoked by this committee nearly 25 years ago in the matter of
>>   President Nixon," Mr. Barr said.
>>
>>   "Those same theories were then, as they must be now, based on clear
>>   historical precedent, considered explicitly by our Founding Fathers,
>>   that alone among remedies to correct abuses of power or improper
>>   conduct by high public officials, stands impeachment," he said.
>>   Several House members have informally contacted Mr. Barr and Mr. Hyde
>>   about a possible impeachment inquiry, and some of them have reviewed a
>>   1974 Watergate report to determine if -- Continued from Front Page --
>>   impeachment articles can be drawn up against Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore,
>>   according to congressional sources.
>>
>>   That report included a review of Article II, Section 4 of the U.S.
>>   Constitution, which says "treason, bribery or other high crimes and
>>   misdemeanors" are grounds for impeachment. It concluded that high
>>   crimes and misdemeanors could include efforts to use the White House
>>   for improper purposes or personal gain.
>>
>>   Mr. Barr, saying that emerging campaign-related scandals could no
>>   longer be ignored by the committee, called on Mr. Hyde to begin a
>>   preliminary impeachment inquiry as soon as possible.
>>   Sam Stratman, spokesman for Mr. Hyde, confirmed Thursday that the
>>   chairman had received the letter and had begun a review of it. He said
>>   the Illinois Republican would respond to Mr. Barr's request in due
>>   course.
>>
>>   White House special counsel Lanny Davis declined comment.
>>   Mr. Barr, a former federal prosecutor, said in a Thursday interview
>>   that he made the decision to seek an impeachment inquiry after it
>>   became apparent the "two top leaders of our country could not assure
>>   the people" they had not engaged in criminal conduct in fund-raising
>>   efforts at the White House.
>>
>>   "Clearly, the time is right to begin the process now," he said.
>>   On March 3, Mr. Gore said he solicited money for the Clinton-Gore
>>   campaign last year from the White House, but he denied it was illegal
>>   -- although a 1995 memo sent to him and Mr. Clinton by White House
>>   Counsel Abner J. Mikva said fund-raising activities of any kind were
>>   prohibited in government buildings and that "no fund-raising phone
>>   calls or mail may emanate from the White House or any other federal
>>   building."
>>
>>   On March 8, Mr. Clinton told reporters he couldn't recall if he made
>>   similar phone calls for campaign cash from the White House.
>>   Mr. Barr already has taken the first step to an informal impeachment
>>   inquiry. Last week, he asked the chief counsel to the Watergate
>>   committee in the Nixon impeachment inquiry to draw up possible
>>   articles of impeachment.
>>
>>   Jerome M. Zeifman, the Democrats' chief counsel on the House Judiciary
>>   Committee during the 1974 Nixon impeachment probe, was asked to begin
>>   a preliminary inquiry and to prepare articles listing possible crimes
>>   committed by the president and the vice president.
>>   Mr. Zeifman, reached at his Connecticut law office, refused to comment
>>   on questions of whether his services had been requested by Mr. Barr or
>>   the committee, but -- when pressed -- he would not deny that he was
>>   involved.
>>
>>   "Throughout my entire legal career, I was trained that any member of
>>   Congress -- Democrat or Republican -- was free to consult with me on
>>   any matter, and that I was to keep those consultations confidential,"
>>   he said. "I am outraged that someone would give you that information."
>>   Mr. Barr, also a member of the House Government Reform and Oversight
>>   Committee now conducting a separate probe into campaign-finance
>>   irregularities involving Mr. Clinton and the Democratic National
>>   Committee, said the "web of Clinton campaign-related scandal" had
>>   grown to such "complexity and proportion," that the appointment of an
>>   independent counsel to look into the matter was not "a desirable
>>   alternative."
>>
>>   "The independent counsel statute cannot be viewed as a permissible or
>>   desirable alternative to the constitutionally mandated process of
>>   addressing issues properly reserved for impeachment inquiry," he said.
>>   "To treat that law in such a manner would undermine our own
>>   constitutional obligations."
>>
>>   Impeachment proceedings against the president or vice president
>>   require an investigation by the Judiciary Committee and debate by the
>>   full House in order to bring an indictment, and then a trial in the
>>   Senate, where a two-thirds vote to convict is necessary.
>>   Mr. Zeifman, whose assistants in the Nixon impeachment inquiry
>>   included lawyers Hillary Rodham Clinton and former White House Counsel
>>   Bernard Nussbaum, has become a vocal administration critic.
>>   He said in a November interview with The Washington Times that the
>>   administration's campaign-finance scandal was worse than Watergate
>>   "because the Democrats in my party are marching in lock step in
>>   support of a corrupt president."
>>
>>   He said Mr. Clinton had "reactivated and exacerbated the cancer that
>>   became systemic in Watergate with respect to campaign financing."
>>   
>>     _________________________________________________________________
<snip>

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Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.    : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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