IMPEACHMENT

Mihalkov К.
j72mihalkov@law.omsu.omskreg.ru

Prologue

In conformity of the Constitution the USA is a federal republic. The government is divided into three branches:

Legislative (the US Congress)
Executive (the President and his administration)
Judicial (the US Supreme Court).

The US President is chief of state and the government. He is elected for a four-year term. But there are some reasons when the President may be removed from his post ahead of schedule. These reasons are accomplishment the Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors by the President (Article II, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution).

It is the ultimate punishment for a president: impeachment. But it is a long and complicated route to removing a political official from office and never in more than 200 years of U.S. history has it happened to a president for "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors,'' as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution as reasons for impeachment.

The Constitutional process

Article II, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution specifies the procedures to be used to remove the president, vice president or other officials from office. The rarely used procedure is complex, reflecting 18th-century formalities.

The process opens in various ways through the House. In one process, the House votes on an inquiry of impeachment which would direct the Judiciary Committee to investigate the charges against the president. If a member of Congress takes the more serious step of introducing a resolution of impeachment, all other work must stop until a decision is reached.

Either the president is cleared of the charges through an investigation, or the committee votes to send articles of impeachment to the full House.

If the House approves articles of impeachment, a trial is conducted in the Senate, presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. At the conclusion, the Senate may vote to simply remove the official from office, or to remove him or her from office and bar from holding any other federal office. Removal requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Practical experience of impeachment

Only three presidents came close to impeachment:

In 1868 President Andrew Johnson was saved by one vote in the Senate after the House approved articles of impeachment against him over a dispute on the post-Civil War reconstruction of the South.

In 1974 President Richard Nixon chose to resign in disgrace rather than face impeachment for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in.

In 1999 President Bill Clinton.

The chronology of events

June 1995: Monica Lewinsky, 21, comes to the White House as an unpaid intern in the office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.

November 1995: Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton begin a sexual relationship, according to audiotapes secretly recorded later by Linda Tripp.

December 1995: Lewinsky moves into a paid position in the Office of Legislative Affairs, handling letters from members of Congress. She frequently ferries mail to the Oval Office.

April 1996: Then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman transfers Lewinsky to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. Lieberman told The New York Times the move was due to "inappropriate and immature behavior" and inattention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky meets Tripp, a career government worker.

Summer 1996: Lewinsky begins to tell fellow Pentagon employee Linda Tripp of her alleged relationship with Clinton.

August 1997: Tripp encountered Kathleen Willey coming out of Oval Office "disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off." Willey later alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton's lawyer, Bill Bennett said in the article that Linda Tripp is not to be believed.

Fall 1997: Tripp to begin taping conversations in which Lewinsky details her alleged affair with the president.

October 1997: Tripp meets with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, Lucianne & Jonah Goldberg at Jonah's apartment in Washington, according to a Newsweek report. The Goldberg's listen to a tape of Tripp/Lewinsky conversations.

December 1997: Lewinsky leaves the Pentagon.

Dec. 17: Lewinsky is subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, who is suing the president on sexual harassment charges.

Dec. 28: Lewinsky makes her final visit to the White House, according to White House logs, and was signed in by Currie. Lewinsky reportedly met privately with Clinton and he allegedly encouraged her to be "evasive" in her answers in the Jones' lawsuit.

Jan. 7, 1998: Lewinsky files an affidavit in the Jones case in which she denies ever having a sexual relationship with President Clinton.

Jan. 9: Tripp delivers the tapes to her lawyer, Jim Moody.

Jan. 12: Linda Tripp contacts the office of Whitewater Independent Counsel Ken Starr to talk about Lewinsky and the tapes she made of their conversations. The tapes allegedly have Lewinsky detailing an affair with Clinton and indicate that Clinton and Clinton friend Vernon Jordan told Lewinsky to lie about the alleged affair under oath.

Jan. 13, 1998: Tripp, wired by FBI agents working with Starr, meets with Lewinsky at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel bar in Pentagon City, Va., and records their conversation.

Jan. 21, 1998: Several news organizations report the alleged sexual relationship between Lewinsky and Clinton. Clinton denies the allegations as the scandal erupts.

Jan. 22, 1998:Clinton reiterates his denial of the relationship and says he never urged Lewinsky to lie. Starr issues subpoenas for a number of people, as well as for White House records. Starr also defends the expansion of his initial Whitewater investigation. Jordan holds a press conference to flatly deny he told Lewinsky to lie. Jordan also says that Lewinsky told him that she did not have a sexual relationship with the president.

Jan. 23, 1998: Clinton assures his Cabinet of his innocence. Judge Susan Webber Wright puts off "indefinitely" a deposition Lewinsky was scheduled to give in the Jones lawsuit. Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, and other aides are subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Ginsburg says Lewinsky is being "squeezed" by Starr and is now a target of the Whitewater investigation.

Jan. 25, 1998: Ginsburg says Lewinsky will "tell all" in exchange for immunity. Clinton political adviser James Carville says "a war" will be waged between Clinton supporters and Kenneth Starr over Starr's investigation tactics.

Jan. 26, 1998: Clinton forcefully repeats his denial, saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Ginsburg offers Starr a summary of what Lewinsky is prepared to say to the grand jury in exchange for a grant of immunity from the prosecution.

Jan. 27, 1998: Jones' attorney, John Whitehead, answers Starr's subpoena with several documents, possibly including Clinton's deposition in the Jones suit. Currie testifies before the grand jury. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton says in a broadcast interview that a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is behind the charges against her husband. A Portland, Ore., man, Andy Bleiler, alleges he had a five-year affair with Lewinsky, and his lawyer promises to turn over documents and items to Starr's investigators. Clinton delivers his State of the Union address, making no mention of the scandal.

Jan. 29, 1998: The judge in the Paula Jones lawsuitrules that Monica Lewinsky is "not essential to the core issues" of the Jones case, and has ordered that all evidence related to Lewinsky be excluded from the Jones proceedings.

Feb. 5, 1998: Ken Starr says his inquiry is" moving very quickly and we've made very significant progress."

Feb. 6, 1998: At a news conference, President Bill Clinton says he would never consider resigning because of the accusations against him. "I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust they've placed in me," he says.

March 11, 1998: The grand jury spends the day listening to audio recordings, which sources say are tapes made by Linda Tripp of her conversations with Monica Lewinsky.

April 1, 1998: Judge Susan Webber Wright dismisses the Paula Jones case.

April 18, 1998: U.S. News & World Report says retired Secret Service office Louis Fox testified before the grand jury that during a visit by Lewinsky to the White House in the fall of 1995, Clinton told him, "Close the door. She'll be in here for a while."

June 30, 1998: Linda Tripp appears before the grand jury for her first day of testimony, accompanied by her children. She says that she did not trick Monica Lewinsky when she taped conversations with her former friend.

August 17, 1998: President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. After the questioning at the White House is finished, Clinton goes on national TV to admit he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton's statement to the grand jury about Lewinsky

"When I was alone with Ms. Lewinsky on certain occasions in early 1996 and once in early 1997, I engaged in conduct that was wrong. These encounters did not consist of sexual intercourse, they did not constitute sexual relations, as I understood that term to be defined at my January 17, 1998 deposition. But they did involve inappropriate intimate contact. These inappropriate encounters ended at my insistence in early 1997. I also had occasional telephone conversations with Ms. Lewinsky that included inappropriate sexual banter.

"I regret that what began as a friendship came to include this conduct and I take full responsibility for my actions. While I will provide the grand jury whatever other information I can, because of privacy considerations affecting my family, myself and others, and in an effort to preserve the dignity of the office I hold, this is all I will say about the specifics of these particular matters.''

"I will try to answer to the best of my ability other questions including questions about my relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, questions about my understanding of the term sexual relations as I understood it to be defined at my January 17, 1998 deposition, and questions concerning alleged subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice and intimidation of witnesses.''

September 9, 1998: Independent Counsel Ken Starr submits his report and 18 boxes of supporting documents to the House of Representatives.

September 18, 1998: Over Democrats' objections, the House Judiciary Committee agrees to release President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony and more than 3,000 pages of supporting material from the Starr report, including sexually explicit testimony from Monica Lewinsky.

September 21, 1998: The Judiciary Committee releases and many television networks immediately broadcast more than four hours of President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony. Along with the videotape, the Judiciary Committee also releases the appendix to the Starr's report which includes 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including a photograph of Lewinsky's semen-stained dress.

September 24, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee announces the committee will consider a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in an open session on October 5 or October 6.

October 2, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee releases another 4,610 pages of supporting material from Ken Starr's investigation, including transcripts of grand jury testimony and transcripts of the Linda Tripp-Monica Lewinsky tapes.

October 5, 1998: On a 21-16 vote, the House Judiciary Committee recommends a full impeachment inquiry.

October 8, 1998: The House of Representatives authorizes a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry of President Clinton on a 258-176 vote. Thirty-one Democrats join Republicans in supporting the investigation.

November 13, 1998: After fighting Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit for four years, Clinton agreed to pay Jones $850,000 to drop the case. But the deal included no apology from the president.

November 27, 1998: President Clinton responds in writing to the 81 questions from the House Judiciary Committee, again acknowledging that he misled the American people about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, but forcefully denying he lied under oath.

December 8, 1998: In a daylong session, President Clinton's lawyers and three panels of witnesses testify on the president's behalf, saying Clinton's behavior does not warrant impeachment.

December 9, 1998: Republicans on the Judiciary Committee unveil four proposed articles of impeachment against President Clinton.

Draft of impeachment articles
Article I PERJURY BEFORE THE GRAND JURY

The President provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the Federal grand jury regarding:

1. the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky;

2. prior perjurious, false and misleading testimony he gave in the Paula Jones civil rights case;

3. prior false and misleading statements he allowed his attorney, Bob Bennett, to make in the Paula Jones case;

4. his efforts to influence the testimony of witnesses and to impede the discovery of evidence in the Paula Jones case.

Article 2 PERJURY IN THE JONES CASE

The President provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony as part of the Paula Jones civil rights action brought before him:

1. in his sworn answers to written questions (affidavit), and

2. in his deposition.

Article 3 OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

The President obstructed justice in an effort to delay, impede, cover up, and conceal the existence of evidence related to the Paula Jones civil rights case in the following cases:

1 December 17, 1997 -- President Clinton encouraged Monica Lewinsky to submit a false written statement (affidavit) to the court;

2. December 17, 1997 -- President Clinton encouraged Monica Lewinsky to give false testimony to the court;

3. December 28. 1997 -- President Clinton helped in a plan to hide the gifts Monica Lewinsky gave him;

4. December 7, 1997 - January 14, 1998 -- President Clinton intensified efforts and succeeded in getting Monica Lewinsky a job to prevent her truthful testimony;

5. January 17, 1998 -- In his deposition in the Paula Jones civil rights case, President Clinton allowed his attorney, Bob Bennett, to make false and misleading statements about Monica Lewinsky's affidavit;

6. January 18 and January 20-21, 1998 -President Clinton made false and misleading statements to Betty Currie, a potential witness, to influence her testimony in the Paula Jones civil case;

7. January 21, 23, and 26, 1998 -- President Clinton made false and misleading statements to Erskine Bowles, Bruce Lindsey, and Sidney Blumenthal, potential witnesses in the criminal case, to influence their testimony.

Article 4 ABUSE OF POWER

The President misused and abused his office and impaired the administration of justice.

1. The President made false and misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States;

2. The President made false and misleading statements to members of the Cabinet and White House aides;

3. The President frivolously asserted executive privilege;

4. The President made perjurious, false and misleading statements to Congress (answers to 81 questions).

December 11, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee approves three articles of impeachment, alleging that President Clinton committed perjury and obstruction of justice. The action comes despite another apology from Clinton.

December 12, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee approves a fourth and final article of impeachment against President Clinton, accusing him of making false statements in his answers to written questions from Congress. A Democratic proposal to censure Clinton instead goes down to defeat.

December 15, 1998: In a blow to White House hopes, 11 moderate House Republicans announce they will vote to impeach the president.

December 16, 1998: In a coordinated strike, U.S. and British forces attack Iraq in retaliation for its failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Because of the military action, House Republican leaders delay a planned impeachment debate and vote set to begin Thursday, December 17.

QUESTION: Mr. President, as you know, Senator Trent Lott and Dick Armey, the House majority leader, other Republicans are questioning the timing, suggesting that this was simply a diversionary tactic to avoid an impeachment vote on the House floor. What do you say to those critics?

CLINTON: That it's not true. That what I did was the right thing for the country. I don't think any serious person would believe that any president would do such a thing, and I don't believe any reasonably astute person in Washington would believe that Secretary Cohen and General Shelton and the whole rest of the national security team would participate in such an action

December 17, 1998: Republicans reschedule the impeachment debate for December 18 over Democratic objections. Republican Speaker-elect Bob Livingston is forced to admit his own marital indiscretions, but says unlike President Clinton, they were not with a staff member and he was never asked to testify under oath about them.

December 18, 1998: The House of Representatives engages in a fierce, daylong debate whether to impeach President Clinton. A CNN survey suggests there are enough votes to approve one or more articles of impeachment.

December 19, 1998: After 13 1/2 hours of debate over two days, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment, charging President Clinton with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton vows to fill out his term and appeals for a bipartisan compromise in the Senate.

January 5, 1999: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott announces President Clinton's trial will begin January 7, but senators continue to wrangle over how long the trial should be and whether to call witnesses.

January 7, 1999: With ceremonial flourishes, the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of President Bill Clinton begins in the Senate, with the swearing in of Chief Justice William Rehnquist to preside and the senators as jurors.

January 8, 1999: The Senate unanimously agrees on a process for continuing the trial, but puts off a decision on a key sticking point -- whether to call witnesses.

January 14, 1999: Thirteen House prosecutors begin a three-day opening statement, laying out the case for the Senate to convict President Clinton and remove him from office.

January 19, 1999: President Clinton's legal team begins a three-day defense of the president.

January 23, 1999: A judge orders Monica Lewinsky to cooperate with House prosecutors; Lewinsky returns to Washington, D.C., from California.

January 24, 1999: Monica Lewinsky submits to a nearly two-hour interview with House prosecutors; they call the session "productive" but Lewinsky's lawyer says it added nothing new to the record.

January 26, 1999: Senators hear arguments about seeking depositions from three witnesses -- Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan and Sidney Blumenthal -- and then deliberate in secret.

January 27, 1999: In twin, 56-44 votes, the Senate refuses to dismiss the charges against President Clinton and agrees to seek depositions from Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan and Sidney Blumenthal.

January 28, 1999: In a party-line vote, the Senate OKs a Republican plan for the impeachment trial's deposition phase, and sets February 12 as a target date for the trial's end.

February 1, 1999: House prosecutors question Monica Lewinsky in a closed-door deposition; Clinton's lawyer reads a statement to her expressing the president's "regret" over what Lewinsky has gone through, but asks no questions.

February 4, 1999: On a 70-30 vote, the Senate decides not to call Monica Lewinsky to testify in person at the trial, but clears the way for House prosecutors to present excerpts of videotaped depositions.

February 8, 1999: House prosecutors and Clinton's lawyers offer closing arguments

February 9, 1999: Senate begins closed-door deliberations on President Clinton's fate, after rejecting a "sunshine" proposal to open the proceedings to the public.

February 12, 1999: President Clinton is acquitted of the two articles of impeachment. Rejecting the first charge of perjury, 10 Republicans and all 45 Democrats vote "not guilty." On the charge of obstruction of justice, 5 Republicans and all 45 Democrats vote "not guilty."

CLINTON: Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people.

I also am humbled and very grateful for the support and the prayers I have received from millions of Americans over this past year.

Now I ask all Americans, and I hope all Americans, here in Washington and throughout our land, will rededicate ourselves to the work of serving our nation and building our future together.

This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America.

Thank you very much.

QUESTION: In your heart, sir, can you forgive and forget?

CLINTON: I believe any person who asks for forgiveness has to be prepared to give it.