The Nation : Ethics Panel May Try Wright This Month

Charges against Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) will probably go to trial before the House Ethics Committee late this month and will take seven to 10 days to complete, the panel’s chairman, Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), said. Unless there is agreement between the lawyers for Wright and the committee to do otherwise, the process will begin with a presentation of witnesses and other evidence by the committee’s special outside counsel, Richard J. Phelan. Wright’s lawyer will then have a chance to offer rebuttal evidence and bring Wright to the stand for a personal defense. Dixon told reporters the committee has not yet decided whether to waive its rules against televising the disciplinary hearing on whether the 69 ethics charges against Wright have been proved.