Brothers Are Enmeshed in Impeachment Process

In a regular courtroom, with a regular case, surely the defense attorney would object. But there is nothing run-of-the-mill about impeachment.

Among the anomalies of the upcoming proceedings against President Clinton is the pair of brothers likely to participate--one on the prosecution team and the other on the jury.

Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), a vehement proponent of Clinton’s removal, is expected to be named today as one of the 13 House Republicans who will prosecute the case before the Senate. His older brother, Tim, also an Arkansas Republican, is one of the 100 senators who will act as jurors in the case.

The lawmakers, ages 48 and 49, live together in a Washington-area apartment. They commute together to their offices on opposite sides of the Capitol. They regularly talk politics--each with a distinctive Southern accent--although they say they intend to hold their tongues while the Clinton case is pending.

The involvement of the two Arkansas brothers in the impeachment of an Arkansas-born president has raised cries of conflict of interest from the state’s Democrats--complaints that have been shrugged off by the brothers.

“This is a conflict that could be cured by Asa stepping down,” Glen Hooks, executive director of the Arkansas Democratic Party, asserted in an interview. “The Hutchinson brothers live together, ride to work together but claim they don’t talk about the case. That wouldn’t fly in any court.”

Congressional Democrats may repeat that argument this morning when the newly assembled House of Representatives considers whether to approve the prosecution team assembled by Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).

“It’s a conflict of interest for a prosecutor to present evidence to a juror who is a relative,” said a Democratic leadership aide.

However, some Democratic lawmakers prefer to begin the new legislative session with a clean slate by quickly delivering the impeachment controversy to the Senate without another partisan slugfest.

The White House, for its part, has raised no objections.

As for the Brothers Hutchinson, they intend to hold onto their front-line posts in the showdown over Clinton’s presidency.

“An impeachment process is not strictly a legal process,” said Christopher Battle, a spokesman for Rep. Hutchinson, explaining the congressman’s decision to accept the assignment. “It’s a unique process established by the Constitution--part legal and part political in nature.”

Asa is busy gearing up to prosecute a case he has decided merits Clinton’s ouster. Tim, who has been more closed-mouthed than his brother, is involved in the still-unresolved discussions among senators about how best to proceed--a quick move toward censure or a full-blown impeachment trial.

This is not be the first time that the Hutchinsons have crossed paths with Clinton, long the dominant politician in their state. As a U.S. attorney, Asa Hutchinson once prosecuted Clinton’s brother on a drug charge. Tim Hutchinson won election to the House in 1992, filling a seat that Clinton had failed to win years before.

Asa followed Tim to Washington in 1996 when the elder Hutchinson moved up to the Senate.

The Hutchinsons share the distinction of sibling lawmakers with the Levins of Michigan (Carl is in the Senate and Sander in the House). And they are not alone in confronting the peculiarities of impeachment.

Three House members who voted on impeachment last month--Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republicans Michael D. Crapo of Idaho and Jim Bunning of Kentucky--will today take the Senate’s oath of office and on Thursday be sworn in as jurors.

“We have a lot of relationships here,” said Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), dismissing the talk of conflicts. “Each member has to make their own decision.”

*

Times staff writers Edwin Chen and Richard A. Serrano contributed to this story.