(6 Oct 1998) English/Nat
Despite objections from Democrats, the U-S House Judiciary Committee has passed a resolution recommending an impeachment inquiry into President Bill Clinton's conduct.
The vote came after the chief Republican investigator for the Committee said the president may have committed 15 impeachable offences - that's four more than Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr claimed.
The full House is expected to agree to the inquiry later this week, thus making Clinton
only the third U-S president in to face the threat of formal impeachment proceedings.
The afternoon session of the House Judiciary Committee hearing began with a much anticipated report by the Republicans' chief investigator.
David Schippers laid out 15 alleged offences by President Bill Clinton.
He said there was evidence Clinton gave false testimony under oath - both in the Paula Jones deposition and before a federal grand jury investigating the Lewinsky matter.
He added Clinton may also have conspired to withhold evidence and tamper with witnesses in the Jones case and before the grand jury.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"As a result of our research and review of the referral and the supporting documentation, we respectfully submit that there exists substantial and credible evidence of 15 separate events directly involving President William Jefferson Clinton that could, could constitute felonies, which in turn may constitute grounds to proceed with an impeachment inquiry."
SUPER CAPTION: David Schippers, Chief Republican Investigator, House Judiciary Committee
At the White House, the president's spokesman took the committee to task for proceeding without first defining what was an impeachable offence.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think that they're putting the cart before the horse. We've had three or four weeks now of every week, conveniently timed before the weekend, of dumping out documents and secret grand jury material. We've not had four hours or so of opening statements and they've yet to spend a minute talking about what is a reasonable standard for impeachment."
SUPER CAPTION: Joe Lockhart, White House Press Secretary
The House Judiciary Committee debated for hours over the details of the imminent inquiry into Clinton's conduct - details like how long the probe would last and what it would cover.
The Democratic counsel argued - as did Democratic committee members - that the president's activity surrounding his extramarital affair failed to reach the Constitutional level of impeachable activity.
But two Democratic attempts to set time limits on the inquiry and limit its scope were rejected by the Republican majority.
Minutes before the final vote, Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee made a final plea for the committee to come together on a time frame.
But Chairman Henry Hyde refused, arguing that setting limits would hinder the committee's search for the truth.
He also alluded to the Watergate impeachment model and said he was only following the example set by the deliberating committee chairman at that time, Democratic Representative Peter Rodino.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I'd like to yield to you Mr Chairman, can we come to an agreement about the conclusion of working toward a reasonable time, certainly not to cover up, not to deny my colleagues on the other side of the aisle there a fair assessment of the facts but recognizing where we are Chairman in this process."
SUPER CAPTION: Sheila Jackson-Lee (Democrat-Texas)
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Henry Hyde (Republican-Illinois), House Judiciary Committee Chairman
SOUNDBITE: (English)
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