The Nation - News from Jan. 26, 1988

Independent counsel Whitney North Seymour Jr., who obtained former presidential aide Michael K. Deaver’s perjury conviction, urged a federal judge to proceed with sentencing despite an appeals court decision voiding the special prosecutor law. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here ruled 2 to 1 Friday that the law providing for court-appointed independent counsels unconstitutionally encroached on the President’s power to prosecute criminal cases. Deaver is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 25 on three counts of lying under oath to a grand jury and a House subcommittee that investigated allegations his lobbying violated federal ethics laws.