Claiborne Not Worthy of Post, Senators Told

The Senate, conducting its first impeachment trial in 50 years, heard charges by the House of Representatives Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Las Vegas showed “a two-year pattern of dereliction” in evading income taxes and “does not deserve to be a federal judge.”

The historic proceeding on the Senate floor--which is expected to conclude Thursday with a Senate vote--is not a trial in the traditional sense because no witnesses appeared. By ruling of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Claiborne’s case was debated by the judge’s attorney, Oscar B. Goodman of Las Vegas, and members of the House Judiciary Committee who served as prosecutors.

The scaled-down proceeding occurred because Dole said he did not want the Senate, in its rush for adjournment, to duplicate the work of a special impeachment committee that took testimony from 18 witnesses over a seven-day period. A transcript of that testimony and compilation of evidence was placed on each senator’s desk.

But the daylong proceeding contained much of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Senate’s rare exercise of its constitutional duty to weigh removal of high federal officials from office.

For seven hours, a quorum of at least 51 senators--mandated by the Founding Fathers for the impeachment process--sat quietly at their polished desks under the glare of cable television lights. When the members had taken their seats, Ernest Garcia, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms, intoned the traditional opening for such trials:

“All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Judge Harry E. Claiborne.”

Bush Greets Participants

Vice President George Bush, presiding officer of the Senate, shook hands with Claiborne, who was seated with his attorney at the front of the chamber, and greeted House prosecutors before officially opening the first impeachment trial since U.S. District Judge Halsted L. Ritter of Miami was convicted of tax fraud and judicial improprieties in April, 1936.

Claiborne’s case, however, is unique in one respect. He is the first sitting federal judge to be imprisoned for crimes committed while in office. Because he has refused to relinquish his lifetime appointment to the judiciary, only the Senate by a two-thirds majority vote can remove him from office.

The 69-year-old jurist, sentenced in 1984 to two years for income tax evasion, has been incarcerated since last May at the federal correctional institution at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., a medium-security institution reserved for white-collar criminals who pose no security threat.

Impeachment automatically deprives a federal judge of his government pension as well as his salary. But in Claiborne’s case, the matter is moot because his eight years on the bench have not yet qualified him for a pension.

Claiborne Makes Plea

After lengthy debate about his conviction for evading taxes in 1979 and 1980, Claiborne rose from his chair and made a personal plea to senators for “fair consideration” of his case.

“I wanted to let you see me,” he began. Referring to debate over his conduct, he said he felt “like a piece of meat thrown out to a couple of dogs and being jerked back and forth.”

Claiborne said he “would rather be anywhere else than here.” But, he added, “I knew when I was convicted that this was the place I had to come. I felt I was not dealt with fairly at my trial.”

Claiborne repeated charges he had made to the committee last month that he was the victim of a vendetta by federal agents in Las Vegas, who were “out to get me” because he had represented organized crime figures as a defense lawyer before his appointment to the bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

Denies ‘Willful Violation’

He said his tax conviction--based on underreporting his income from deferred legal fees by $106,000--resulted from “negligence” on his part and errors by his tax accountants, and did not represent “a willful violation of any law.”

But Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.), Judiciary Committee chairman who defended the House articles of impeachment, charged that Claiborne had “betrayed the trust of the people” and should be found “guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“If Judge Claiborne’s explanations are accepted, then no citizen should ever be obliged to pay any taxes,” said Rodino.