Baird Crossed Line, Gingrich Says

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Friday that President-elect Bill Clinton should withdraw Zoe Baird’s nomination for attorney general if she broke the law by employing illegal immigrants in her home.

“Clearly she has crossed the line,” Gingrich said. “You can’t have a person who ought to be prosecuted serving in the Cabinet.”

Gingrich’s comments are the harshest criticism of Baird yet from Congress since disclosure this week that she and her husband employed an undocumented Peruvian couple to serve as baby-sitter and driver.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have said they doubted that the disclosure would derail her confirmation to head the Justice Department, although they acknowledged it was an embarrassment for Baird.

A spokesman for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who is coordinating Republican scrutiny of all Clinton’s nominees in the Senate, said Friday that Republicans were prepared to question Baird on the issue but that, depending on her answers, it probably would not be disqualifying.

“I think it’ll be an issue,” spokesman Bruce Lott said. “It may not be a killer issue.”

Gingrich, the second-ranking Republican leader in the House, cited reports of Baird’s hiring of the immigrants and her failure to pay Social Security taxes for the employees until recently.