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