WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTION
REES, MATTHEW
WITNESSES FOR. THE PROSECUTION by Matthew Rees "I'M DELIGHTED WE HAVE THE prospect of calling witnesses. I'm disappointed we have to go through so many hurdles to get there." That's how Asa...
...Another, led by Ed Bryant of Tennessee, will handle the questioning and cross-examining of witnesses...
...But none of them is likely to produce a smoking gun...
...A third team, led by Charles Canady of Florida, is preparing the legal case for conviction, while a team led by James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is charged with formulating the response to expected White House attempts to bar evidence from the trial...
...Most explosive of all would be the summoning of individuals who claim to have been coerced into filing false affidavits by Clinton operatives...
...It's the view of the managers that if they aren't allowed to call some of the witnesses central to the case against the president, the likelihood of their convicting will shrink from slim to none...
...One rumor last week had it that among those to be called in support of the obstruction of justice charge is "Jane Doe #5," who has recanted her year-old affidavit denying a forced sexual encounter with Clinton 20 years ago—an affidavit she is believed to have signed under pressure from Clinton operatives...
...What mattered more, though, was that the managers succeeded in quashing Lott's effort and secured a trial in which at least some key testimony is likely to be heard...
...Manager Bob Barr told the New York Times recently that "a senator's attention span is probably less than an average juror's, so we'll need to simplify, simplify, simplify...
...They'll need more such successes if they are to achieve their final objective—removing the president from office...
...One of the managers' objectives is to prevent the trial from becoming bogged down in details...
...As for Lewinsky, she's unpredictable...
...They possess the most direct knowledge of the president's alleged perjury and obstruction of justice...
...Their vigilance sends a clear signal to the White House that even though there's little expectation of 67 votes to convict the president, there will be no hesitation about making the case for conviction...
...Second, they want to showcase a congressman who comes across as a regular guy—as Chicagoan David Schippers, the majority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, did in the House...
...This went against everything the managers had been working for, and they weren't shy about sharing their disapproval with Lott...
...Lindsey is believed to have had a hand in efforts to silence people who possessed damaging information about the president...
...Blumenthal and Morris would probably be asked about their conversations with Clinton shortly after the Lewinsky story broke a year ago...
...Currie has continued to work at the White House and was seen hugging the president in the Oval Office a few hours after the House impeachment vote...
...That's how Asa Hutchinson, one of the House managers prosecuting the case against the president, views the deal approved by the Senate on January 8. Hutchinson and his fellow managers are concerned because the Senate resolution requires all potential witnesses to be deposed, and then approved by a majority of the Senate, before they can testify...
...Jordan is a close friend of Clinton's and has given no indication he would implicate the president in any more wrongdoing...
...With this, the managers hope to achieve three things...
...Once the pretrial motions are disposed of, Sensenbrenner will deliver the opening statement...
...Sensenbrenner, known among his colleagues for his prickliness and for being a Kimberly-Clark heir, nonetheless screams middle class, with his strong Wisconsin accent and his penchant for playing the lottery (a year ago, he won $250,000 on two one-dollar tickets...
...A source close to the case says the managers will respond by pointing to the Senate precedents for removing federal officials from office for lying under oath (as in the cases of judges Walter Nixon, Harry Claiborne, and Alcee Hastings...
...The first challenge will confront Canady's team, which includes Lindsey Graham and Steve Buyer...
...One, led by Bill McCollum of Florida, is researching which witnesses should testify...
...Matthew Rees is a staff writer for THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...White House lawyers Charles Ruff and Gregory Craig are expected to file a pretrial motion that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the president's actions do not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors and were not part of his official conduct...
...In preparation, the managers have grouped themselves in four "teams...
...That said, the managers are much happier with the Senate deal than with what they faced on December 29...
...Other witnesses who could be called to testify about obstruction are Dolly Kyle Browning, who says she had a long-term sexual relationship with Clinton, and Kathleen Willey, who maintains the president groped her in the Oval Office...
...Even more unpredictable are a slew of other witnesses the managers might call to testify, such as White House aides Bruce Lindsey and Sidney Blu-menthal and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris...
...A House manager acknowledged to me, "These are not witnesses we can call with absolute confidence...
...Once all of the witnesses have been heard and cross-examined, the managers will present their closing argument in two stages...
...But in a hint of the obstacles ahead, Democratic senator Joseph Biden said that calling these witnesses would be "inappropriate, unfair, and unseemly...
...On December 31, Hutchinson made the case against Lott's proposal in a piece published in the New York Times...
...Then Hyde will explain what it means...
...and they'll argue that if Clinton can't be convicted for actions not part of his official conduct, then it follows that he could rape a woman and remain in office...
...While this may prove inconsequential, the fear is that following the depositions the White House will argue that potential witnesses have nothing new to add to the record and thus shouldn't be called to testify...
...Third, the managers hope Sensenbrenner's presentation will calm the waters before the summoning of witnesses inflames White House lawyers and Senate Democrats...
...And last week, the managers agitated, in public and private, for the Senate to grant them the right to conduct a trial with ample time to make their case and call witnesses...
...Hyde talked to the majority leader that evening, and the next day released a letter he had sent Lott spelling out the shortcomings in the proposal for an abbreviated trial...
...First, they want a clear and complete review of the case against the president...
...That's when Trent Lott, the Senate GOP leader, told a reporter he had a plan for a truncated trial with no witnesses...
...Manager James Rogan, a 41-year-old former municipal judge and district attorney, will sum up the facts of the case against the president...
...Yet risks accompany all three...
...The three witnesses Bryant is most likely to call are Monica Lewinsky, Betty Currie, and Vernon Jordan...
...That comment, coupled with Hyde's persistence in beating back the plan for a short-circuited trial, prompted endless carping last week from senators, most of them Democrats, that the House managers weren't respecting the Senate's prerogatives...
Vol. 4 • January 1999 • No. 17
