Senate Panel Delays Hearing Judge’s Defense

The Senate Impeachment Committee on Wednesday delayed until next week a ruling on whether to hear a claim by imprisoned federal judge Harry E. Claiborne that he was framed by vindictive prosecutors bent on destroying him.

The panel headed by Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.) agreed to decide on Monday whether to consider Claiborne’s crucial defense argument or--as House prosecutors are seeking--to limit the evidence to details of his conviction for tax evasion.

The committee spent Wednesday hearing oral arguments and disposing of pretrial motions as it laid the groundwork for the Senate’s first impeachment trial in more than half a century.

Plans Busy Week

The panel plans to meet each day next week to hear evidence for submission to the full Senate, where the trial will be conducted with nine members of the House Judiciary Committee acting as prosecutors.

Claiborne is serving a two-year sentence in a federal prison at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., as a result of an August, 1984, conviction on charges of failing to report income on his tax returns for 1979 and 1980.

Claiborne, the chief U.S. district judge for Nevada, has refused to resign and continues to draw his $78,700 annual salary. Under the Constitution, a federal judge, who is appointed for life, can be removed from office only by conviction at a Senate impeachment trial.

Claiborne’s lawyer, Oscar Goodman, argued that his client was an honest, hard-working man who cared little for money, but who was victimized by careless tax accountants and an FBI agent determined to put him behind bars.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) argued that Claiborne “had his day in court” and lost. “He comes to the Senate as Judge Claiborne and he ought to leave the Senate as inmate Claiborne,” Hyde said.