Book Claims ‘Sellout’ on Impeachment

Republican leaders in the Senate succumbed to political pressure and “sold out” the House members who impeached President Clinton, ensuring the Senate would not remove him from office, the chief investigator contends in a new book. “Before we ever appeared on the floor of the United States Senate, the House impeachment managers and I knew we didn’t have a shot to win,” writes David P. Schippers, top investigative counsel to Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment. “In the U.S. Senate, politics trumped principles, and polls trumped honor,” Schippers, who has returned to private law practice in Chicago, says in “Sellout: The Inside Story of President Clinton’s impeachment,” to be published Monday. Schippers said the House managers were hamstrung because the Republican-controlled Senate limited the trial to five weeks, refused to hear live witness testimony and allowed depositions of only three prosecution witnesses.