House Panel Moves to Oust Black U.S. Judge in Miami

The House Judiciary Committee today approved 17 articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Miami and sent the historic bribery case to the full House.

Hastings, 51, is the first federal judge to face impeachment after his acquittal in a criminal trial on the same charges, and he is the first black to face removal from federal office under the impeachment procedure.

In Miami, Hastings said that those who voted against him “acted in blind ignorance. They could not have read the material.”

The committee voted 32 to 1 to approve all 17 impeachment articles.

A number of committee members said they had done considerable soul-searching because they feared Hastings may have been correct in his assertion that he was the victim of racism. But those expressing such reservations said that factual circumstances of the case showed that impeachment is warranted.

Hastings will be removed from his lifetime office if the full House votes for impeachment and he is convicted in a Senate trial.

“I think it’s a very sad day,” said Terence Anderson, Hastings’ lawyer. “I think the decision is wrong.”

After a series of hearings on the Hastings case, the House criminal justice subcommittee unanimously recommended his impeachment earlier this month.

Hastings is accused of conspiring to solicit a bribe from two racketeers seeking lighter sentences and of lying about the scheme to a federal jury. He also is accused of leaking information about a wiretap.

William Borders, a Washington attorney accused of participating with Hastings in the bribery scheme, has been convicted of the charges. Hastings, in a separate 1983 trial, was acquitted.

The first of the articles of impeachment, which are similar to an indictment, accused Hastings of engaging in a conspiracy to obtain a $150,000 bribe from two brothers. Other articles accused him of lying about the scheme at his trial by denying specific parts of the conspiracy, of leaking wiretap information and of undermining confidence in the federal judiciary.

Eleven impeachment cases have come to trial before the Senate, and five defendants, all judges, have been removed from office.