Since Dec 19, 2003
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Posted on 12/19/2003 7:31:34 AM PST by the big ship
The Senate today acquitted William Jefferson Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice, ending a 13-month drama that catapulted an affair with a White House intern into only the second presidential impeachment trial in history. The vote allows the 42nd president to finish his term in office.
``It is therefore ordered and adjudged that William Jefferson Clinton be and hereby is acquitted of the charges in the said articles,'' Chief Justice William Rehnquist declared.
Senators voted 50-50 on the impeachment article accusing Clinton of obstruction of justice, far short of the two-thirds required for conviction. Earlier, senators rejected the charge of perjury by a 55-45 vote, as 10 Republicans joined the Democrats.
Both charges would have required 67 votes for conviction, a threshold that senators have known for weeks would not be met.
Shortly after the votes, Rehnquist banged his gavel to end the five-week trial.
Clinton was in the White House residence during the vote. Aides said he did not watch it on television. The final votes were broadcast by the networks to a nation long since weary of the proceedings
``Senators, how say you? Is respondent William Jefferson Clinton guilty or not guilty?'' Rehnquist said to a hushed chamber, beginning the vote.
One by one, senators rose from their seats and declared ``guilty'' or ``not guilty.''
The Republicans who voted against conviction on perjury were:
--Slade Gorton of Washington, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John Chafee of Rhode Island, James Jeffords of Vermont, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Fred Thompson of Tennessee and John Warner of Virginia.
GOP senators opposing the obstruction article were:
-- Collins, Chafee, Jeffords, Snowe and Specter.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott offered Democrats a long-shot opportunity to force a discussion of censure immediately after the trial ended -- a reminder that even in acquittal Clinton would be forever tarnished as the second president in history to be impeached.
The Senate chamber doors, mostly closed for the last four days, were opened for a final vote shortly after noon EST. Before the votes were taken, the articles of impeachment were read for a final time. Lott declared it was time for senators to fulfill their ``obligation under the Constitution.''
The final outcome of the votes was known for days as five moderate Republicans announced in advance that they planned to vote against both articles.
Senators thanked the chief justice for presiding over the trial and presented him with a gavel on a plaque. He said he was leaving the Senate chamber a ``wiser but not a sadder man.''
House managers exited the chamber, shaking hands with senators of both parties.
Even with the inevitable acquittal, senators wanted the public to know they abhorred the president's conduct in concealing his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
``While it may not be a crime, he exploited a very young, star-struck employee whom he then proceeded to smear in an attempt to destroy her credibility, her reputation, her life,'' said Sen. Collins, who today became the fifth Republican to announce an intention to vote for acquittal.
Democrats also had sharp words for the president. ``The president's self-indulgent actions were immoral, disgraceful, reprehensible. History should -- and, I suspect, will -- judge that William Jefferson Clinton dishonored himself and the highest office in our American democracy,'' said Sen. Bob Graham of Florida.
Today's votes complete a drama that has riveted official Washington, roiled a midterm congressional election and worn out the patience of the American public. ``The Senate will resume final deliberations now in the closed session, thank goodness,'' Lott said at the start of today's session.
After the votes on the articles, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was allowed to introduce a motion to censure the president and Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, the most vocal opponent of the rebuke, offered a rival motion to kill the effort.
Feinstein's proposal called Clinton's conduct ``shameful, reckless and indefensible'' and accused him of giving false or misleading testimony and ``impeding discovery of evidence in judicial proceedings.'' The California senator said, however, she did not have enough support to bring the matter to a vote today.
After acquittal, Clinton will not remain without troubles: He could face indictment, while in office or after his term, by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, and must finish his remaining months in office facing a GOP-controlled Congress that wanted him evicted from the White House.
The trial featured for the first time videotaped testimony on the Senate floor and provided the world its first good look at Ms. Lewinsky, the former White House intern. A national TV audience was able to watch as 13 House impeachment managers, all Republicans, argued that Clinton deserved to be thrown out of office, while White House lawyers said he should not.
Throughout the impeachment proceedings, opinion polls showed that most of the public gave Clinton low marks for personal trust and morality -- and were repulsed when Clinton's now-famous televised, finger-wagging assertion, ``I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky'' proved less than truthful. But they approved of the job he was doing in a time of peace and a booming economy and did not think the sex and cover-up scandal was serious enough to warrant his removal from office.
Still, a Republican-controlled House in December voted virtually along party lines to send to the Senate for trial an impeachment case based almost entirely upon a voluminous report by Starr.
The report detailed Linda Tripp's secret tape recordings; furtive sex acts between the president and Ms. Lewinsky near the Oval Office; late night phone calls between the president and the intern and, most damning for Clinton, a stained dress.
Based on Starr's findings, the House approved one article of impeachment accusing the president of lying to a federal grand jury on Aug. 17, 1998, about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
The second charge said Clinton obstructed justice by trying to have Ms. Lewinsky sign a false affidavit in the Jones case; by a job search conducted by presidential friend Vernon Jordan; by the retrieval of presidential gifts by Oval Office secretary Betty Currie and the alleged ``coaching'' of Mrs. Currie by the president for her grand jury appearance.
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