Panel Finds Sex Harassment Evidence Against Packwood Credible

The Senate Ethics Committee, ending the first stage of a more than two-year-long probe, has concluded that there is credible evidence to support charges of sexual harassment against Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), according to committee sources.

The finding, which is expected to be announced today, moves the long and secretive investigation into a final trial phase.

It also spells new trouble for Republicans, because it comes just as Packwood--the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee--is slated to play a key role in debates over tax cuts, the budget and welfare reform.

Packwood’s office had no immediate comment. But sources close to the Ethics Committee said that the six-member panel had concluded from its review of an exhaustive staff report that there was too much evidence to dismiss the case against the five-term senator, who has been accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward nearly two dozen women and then attempting to intimidate some of them into remaining silent.

Other complaints before the Ethics Committee allege that Packwood improperly intervened with lobbyists to seek a job for his former wife and sought to alter his private diaries in order to withhold possibly incriminating evidence from the committee after it had voted to subpoena the papers.

The committee’s findings, the legislative equivalent of a formal complaint, draw no conclusions and make no recommendations as to punishment should the Oregon Republican be found guilty of the charges.

But a number of punishments, ranging from a formal rebuke to expulsion from the Senate, are possible if the committee concludes that Packwood violated Senate ethics rules and standards of conduct.

Packwood could also be stripped of his chairmanship of the Finance Committee, at a time when it is in the process of crafting GOP welfare proposals.

While he has denied the specific allegations, Packwood has apologized for what he has publicly acknowledged had been his “terribly offensive” conduct toward women in the past.

The Ethics Committee began its probe of the charges against Packwood in December, 1992, less than a month after the senator was reelected to a fifth term. Some two dozen women eventually cooperated with the committee, whose investigation was nearly derailed last year by Packwood’s refusal to surrender his subpoenaed diaries.

The committee went to court to enforce the subpoena and, after a protracted legal battle, Packwood surrendered the diaries in March of last year.

After releasing its findings, the committee’s next step will be to schedule hearings--which a number of Packwood’s accusers and at least one member of the committee, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), want held in public.

Early in the investigation, Packwood indicated that he would welcome public hearings as a chance to clear his name. But other GOP sources have indicated they are not at all sure now if the senator would really want the embarrassment of a detailed public airing of the charges.