Packwood Loses Legal Fight to Keep Diaries From Panel : Probe: Appeals court refuses to allow delay in turning over materials to Senate Ethics Committee. Transfer could begin as early as Tuesday.

A federal appeals court refused on Friday to keep Sen. Bob Packwood’s diaries from the Senate Ethics Committee while he appeals the panel’s subpoena.

The order means the Oregon Republican’s diaries could begin making their way to the committee as early as Tuesday.

Packwood “has not satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay pending appeal,” said a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The order left intact a 15-day timetable set by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on Feb. 7 to begin transferring the diaries to the committee for its investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct, witness intimidation and obstruction of the inquiry.

“We don’t have any comment at this time” on the appeals court’s order, said Packwood’s press secretary, Bobbi Munson. His lawyer, Jacob Stein, was in a conference and could not be reached for immediate comment, an aide said.

Packwood’s lawyers say the Ethics Committee’s subpoena violates the senator’s right of privacy under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment as well as his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

In an order initialed by Judges Harry T. Edwards, David B. Sentelle and A. Raymond Randolph, the court said it would expedite Packwood’s appeal. Argument was scheduled for May 12.

Stein argued before Jackson that the challenge to the subpoena would be meaningless if the diaries, which include audio recordings and transcripts, were given to investigators before the appellate court ruled.

Senate lawyers said in court papers this week that Packwood’s refusal to cooperate with the committee threatened Congress’ self-policing powers. They said they “never before needed to issue a subpoena to a senator.”

The Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that the senator made unwanted sexual advances to more than two dozen women, used his staff to intimidate witnesses, solicited job offers from lobbyists for his wife and obstructed the congressional probe by altering the diaries.

Packwood initially gave the committee his diaries, but cut off access to diaries covering 1989 to the present after the panel found segments that showed lobbyists and business executives offered his wife a job during their divorce proceedings.