Prosecuting the President

▪ 2000

      On Jan. 7, 1999, the U.S. Senate convened as a court to try articles of impeachment against Democratic Pres. Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a president had been tried by the Senate. The first impeachment trial took place in 1868, when by one vote the Senate acquitted Pres. Andrew Johnson of charges brought in a partisan dispute over his enforcement of Reconstruction policies and over his right to dismiss certain federal officials. Although also a highly partisan affair, the impeachment of Clinton by the Republican-led House of Representatives in December 1998 arose from Clinton's testimony concerning extramarital sexual affairs and involved charges that he had committed perjury before a federal grand jury and had obstructed justice in a civil case brought against him.

      The U.S. Constitution provided no more than an outline of the trial process—that the chief justice of the Supreme Court preside and that a two-thirds vote was required for conviction and removal from office—and the Senate itself had only those rules adopted for the Johnson trial. Under the latter the arguments for the prosecution and the defense were conducted in public, whereas deliberations and voting took place behind closed doors.

      The course of the trial was driven by the virtual certainty that there were not enough votes to convict and by the desire of the Senate to conclude quickly what was an unpopular action. On the other hand, the members of the House of Representatives who acted as the prosecutors in the Senate argued for a full-blown trial, to include the calling of witnesses. In the end the Senate opted for simpler proceedings, which took five weeks, and it generally avoided the bitter wrangling that had marked the House deliberations.

      According to agreements worked out by Senate leaders, beginning on January 14 the prosecutors and defense presented their cases, followed by questions from senators. (During these proceedings the president, on January 19, delivered the annual state of the union address to a joint session of Congress.) After further deliberations it was decided to depose three witnesses, including Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern who was at the centre of the case against the president. On January 27 the Senate rejected a motion to dismiss the case by a vote of 56–44. Beginning on February 1, the witnesses were deposed, and after a review of the transcripts, a request to call Lewinsky to testify in person was defeated 70–30. Parts of the videotaped depositions were shown on the Senate floor, however, and on February 8 the two sides presented their closing arguments. On February 12 the Senate acquitted the president of the charge of perjury by a vote of 55–45, with 10 Republicans joining the 45 Democrats. The vote on the charge of obstruction of justice was 50–50, with 5 Republicans joining the Democrats. A number of senators who voted for acquittal were critical of the president's behaviour but said that the charges had not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt or, even if they had, did not constitute the “high crimes and misdemeanors” specified by the Constitution as grounds for removal from office.

Robert Rauch

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