Packwood Says He Should Stay Even if Guilty
Sen. Bob Packwood said Tuesday he should not be expelled from the Senate even if the Ethics Committee finds him guilty of all the allegations of sexual and official misconduct facing him.
The Oregon Republican said in an interview that the only senators ever expelled were those found guilty of treason. He said the allegations against him are not comparable to treason.
“When you have one complaint in 12 years, when you have others that are 15, 20 [years], a quarter century old and the only reason we have expelled people is for treason, do you put that on the same scale?” Packwood asked.
Does Packwood? “No,” he answered.
The senator also denied for the first time publicly that he or anyone else altered his diaries before they were turned over to the Senate Ethics Committee.
“No altered diaries were ever given to the committee,” he said in a telephone interview from New York City, where he was taping an NBC interview with Jane Pauley.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
