‘Lynch Mob’ Is After Wright, Lawyer Says : Ethics Panel Asked to Drop Key Charges as House Speaker’s Televised Hearing Opens

Jim Wright’s defense opened before a national television audience today with his lawyer urging the House Ethics Committee to “stand in the way of the lynch mob” seeking the House Speaker’s resignation.

“According to the press, Jim Wright’s through. He’s got to resign his speakership. Maybe even his seat in Congress,” said Stephen Susman, attorney for the Texas Democrat.

“Why worry about due process for a dead man?” he asked rhetorically. “Why should this committee stand in the way of a lynch mob or a conviction based upon guilt by association?”

Because “if a member of Congress cannot get a fair trial . . . no American can,” he said.

Trial-Like Setting

The arguments were made in a trial-like setting, with Susman and his team at a “defense” table and the Ethics Committee investigators poised behind an identical table across the room. A central lectern allowed the lawyers to speak while standing before the committee, which sat behind a raised, wood-paneled dais.

Wright’s wife, Betty, arrived during Susman’s arguments and took a seat in the front row of the audience. One of the Speaker’s daughters also attended, but Wright did not.

Susman was asking the Ethics Committee today to dismiss key charges against Wright based on different interpretations of the House rules. Supporters hope for a narrow legal victory that the Speaker could parlay into political salvation.

However, Richard Phelan, the outside counsel who investigated Wright for the committee, argued that the panel should not look narrowly at the legal arguments. The House code of conduct was designed to be comprehensive, he said.

“This case and this discussion is not about loopholes in tax codes,” Phelan said. “It’s not about carefully crafting legislation to permit persons to evade or to circumvent or to look askance.”

Wright’s lawyers contend that he is being judged by a new, harsher standard that goes far beyond the letter of House rules. In advance of today’s hearing, they gave themselves no better than an even chance of winning dismissal of at least some of the 69 counts against him.

Support Eroding

But with Wright’s political support eroding under the weight of serious ethics charges, even the Speaker’s supporters emphasize the importance of persuading the Ethics Committee to drop at least one of the two main charges.

In the month since the panel formally made its charges against Wright, his support has eroded. Members of his own party have begun holding meetings to discuss his case and its possible harmful effect on their own political situations.

The stakes in today’s arguments were heightened by the Ethics Committee’s decision to allow television coverage of the hearing. Rarely does the panel allow such open coverage, but Wright said he welcomed the chance to have his side of the story presented.