Senate Opens Judge’s Impeachment Trial

The Senate’s first impeachment trial in half a century opened Monday with House prosecutors urging the ouster of a Las Vegas federal judge convicted of income tax evasion and a defense lawyer portraying the judge as the harassed victim of federal investigators who were “stalking him.”

Judge Harry E. Claiborne, released temporarily from a federal minimum security prison in Alabama after serving four months of a two-year sentence, stoically watched the proceedings as he sat under the glare of television lights in an ornate meeting room of a Senate office building.

Despite his 1984 conviction and subsequent incarceration, the 69-year-old Claiborne has refused to resign his judgeship, which he has held since 1978, and continues to draw his $78,700-a-year salary. He is only the 14th federal official to undergo an impeachment trial and the first to do so after being put behind bars. The last impeachment trial was in 1936 for Florida federal Judge Halsted L. Ritter, who was convicted.

Unanimous House Vote

The House, acting much like a grand jury, voted 406 to 0 on July 23 for impeachment proceedings, contending that Claiborne committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” for failing to report $106,000 in income on his 1979 and 1980 tax returns.

Under the Constitution, the Senate must conduct the trial, but Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) appointed a bipartisan panel of 12 members to hear evidence and report recommendations for action to the full Senate. The prosecution is being directed by a committee of nine House members from both parties.

In opening arguments, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) ridiculed Claiborne’s contention that his accountants were responsible for unintentional mistakes on his tax returns.

“It is simply impossible to believe a federal judge would be so ignorant of the facts and his responsibilities,” Rodino said. “. . . We simply cannot let a convicted felon sit on the federal bench and make judgments on others.”

Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), another member of the prosecution team, urged the Senate panel to bar Claiborne’s lawyers from trying to prove that government prosecutors cooked up evidence against the judge as part of a vendetta. “This is an impeachment trial,” said Glickman. “It should not serve as a forum where Judge Claiborne can search for evidence to substantiate wild and paranoid theories of government oppression.”

Portrayed as Victim

However, Oscar Goldman, the chief defense attorney, portrayed his client as a victim of Justice Department Strike Force prosecutors with whom he had often sparred while on the bench.

Goldman claimed that Strike Force members intimidated witnesses into testifying against Claiborne and that they had mocking pictures of Claiborne portrayed as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and another judge as a Ku Klux Klan member in their Nevada office.

Claiborne did not testify Monday, although Goldman has indicated that he may call the judge to the stand during the panel’s proceeding, which could last a week.

Among witnesses testifying Monday was Joseph C. Wright, a longtime accountant for Claiborne who prepared the judge’s 1979 tax return.