Impeachment

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina lawmakers voted yesterday to formally rebuke Governor Mark Sanford, again sparing him from impeachment over secret trips to see his Argentine mistress and his use of state planes. The House Judiciary Committee unanimously agreed to censure the governor for bringing “ridicule, dishonor, disgrace, and shame’’ to the state. Though scathing, the rebuke has no practical effect on Sanford’s ability to govern for the 13 months that remain in his term.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Former representative James R. Mann of South Carolina, remembered for his work on the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, has died, his son said Tuesday. Mr. Mann was 90. The former lawmaker died Monday in Greenville after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, James R. Mann Jr. said. Mr. Mann, a Democrat, served two terms in the South Carolina Legislature and was elected twice as Greenville and Pickens county solicitor before he was elected to represent South Carolina’s Fourth District in Congress from 1969 to 1979.

SEOUL -- Thousands of angry South Koreans held candlelight vigils across the country yesterday to protest the historic impeachment of their president. An interim head of state known as "Mr. Stability" took control, pledging to keep foreign and economic policies on an even keel. The spontaneous evening protests were peaceful but underlined widespread dismay at a political crisis that has rattled a nation already juggling the North Korean nuclear standoff, a sluggish economy, and a tumultuous run-up to hotly contested parliamentary elections next month.

WASHINGTON — The Senate convicted US District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of Louisiana yesterday on four articles of impeachment, making him just the eighth federal judge in history to be removed by Congress. They also approved a motion barring him from holding future federal office. Porteous, who sat before senators in the well of the chamber as they voted separately on each count, issued a statement after the vote saying he disagreed but must now accept that judgment. “I am deeply saddened to be removed from office, but I felt it was important not just to me but to the...

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to open the first impeachment investigation of a sitting judge in almost two decades. With little discussion, the Democratic-led panel voted unanimously to launch an investigation against US District Judge Thomas Porteous, a Louisiana jurist, who is charged with presiding over a trial in which the lawyers involved had given him money. He is also accused of filing for bankruptcy under a false name. Porteous was appointed by President Clinton.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge from Louisiana is corrupt and unfit to serve on the bench, House members said yesterday as they began a rare congressional impeachment trial by laying out their case against the jurist. Playing the role of prosecutors, Representatives Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, used their opening statements to a Senate impeachment panel to outline what they called a decades-long pattern of unethical behavior by New Orleans-area US District Judge G. Thomas Porteous.

MONTPELIER -- Hundreds of people swarmed the State House to lobby lawmakers yesterday as the House debated and ultimately rejected a nonbinding resolution on whether Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Lawmakers voted 87 to 60 against the resolution, following the lead of House Speaker Gaye Symington, who said that she opposed the Bush administration but that she believed impeachment would be an unnecessary distraction.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Bill Clinton called Congress's impeachment of him an "egregious" abuse of the Constitution and challenged those who say history will judge him poorly because of his White House tryst with Monica Lewinsky. Speaking Thursday at an academic conference examining his presidency, Clinton challenged historian Douglas Brinkley's comments in a newspaper interview that Clinton would be deemed a great president were it not for his impeachment. "I completely disagree with that," the former president said in his speech at Hofstra University.

ST. LOUIS -- William Hungate, a former federal judge and a congressman who sponsored one of the articles of impeachment against President Nixon, died Friday of complications from surgery to treat a blood clot in the brain, his family said. He was 84. A Democrat, Mr. Hungate represented Missouri's Ninth Congressional District from November 1964 to January 1977. He sponsored the second article of impeachment against Richard Nixon before the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate proceeding.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Lawmakers plan to formally consider impeaching Governor Mark Sanford for the first time next week, the chairman of the committee beginning that work said yesterday. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison said he is appointing an ad-hoc committee of four Republicans and three Democrats who will begin meeting Tuesday. He said he expects to have a resolution to impeach ready before Christmas for the full Judiciary Committee to consider. Sanford spokesman Ben Fox declined to comment and his lawyers did not immediately respond to...

WASHINGTON — The Senate wrapped up its first impeachment trial since the 1999 case against President Bill Clinton, scheduling votes for today on the fate of a Louisiana judge accused of corruption. If convicted, US District Judge G. Thomas Porteous would become just the eighth federal judge to be removed from office. He faces four articles of impeachment that were unanimously approved by the House in March. Porteous, who sat quietly before senators in the well of the Senate during arguments yesterday, has acknowledged accepting cash and favors from lawyers and bail...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge from Louisiana is corrupt and unfit to serve on the bench, House members said yesterday as they began a rare congressional impeachment trial by laying out their case against the jurist. Playing the role of prosecutors, Representatives Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, used their opening statements to a Senate impeachment panel to outline what they called a decades-long pattern of unethical behavior by New Orleans-area US District Judge G. Thomas Porteous.

WASHINGTON — The House voted unanimously yesterday to impeach a US district judge from Louisiana, who lawmakers said avoided probable criminal charges related to alleged payoffs in part because the statute of limitations expired. The House approved four impeachment articles charging him with taking payoffs and lying under oath. The unanimous vote reflected the bipartisan anger of the House over the judge’s conduct. The case goes to trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed to convict Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of the “high crimes and misdemeanors’’...

WASHINGTON - It’s not the lifestyle of a typical federal judge: five or six vodka cocktails during lunch; gambling with borrowed money; bankruptcy under a phony name; and cash, trips, or home repairs from lawyers and a bail bondsman with business before his court. Witnesses in the congressional impeachment case against US District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. paint a jarring portrait of the former Louisiana state judge who was appointed to the federal bench in 1994 by President Clinton.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina lawmakers voted yesterday to formally rebuke Governor Mark Sanford, again sparing him from impeachment over secret trips to see his Argentine mistress and his use of state planes. The House Judiciary Committee unanimously agreed to censure the governor for bringing “ridicule, dishonor, disgrace, and shame’’ to the state. Though scathing, the rebuke has no practical effect on Sanford’s ability to govern for the 13 months that remain in his term.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Lawmakers debating yesterday whether to impeach Governor Mark Sanford challenged claims that a 2008 taxpayer-funded trip in which he saw his Argentine mistress was legitimate state business. Sanford’s office and state Commerce Department officials have said the trip, which included stops in Buenos Aires and Brazil, was for legitimate state business. But state Representative Greg Delleney, Republican of Chester, said he believes the so-called economic development mission was cover for something else.

WASHINGTON - It’s not the lifestyle of a typical federal judge: five or six vodka cocktails during lunch; gambling with borrowed money; bankruptcy under a phony name; and cash, trips, or home repairs from lawyers and a bail bondsman with business before his court. Witnesses in the congressional impeachment case against US District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. paint a jarring portrait of the former Louisiana state judge who was appointed to the federal bench in 1994 by President Clinton.

WASHINGTON — The Senate convicted US District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of Louisiana yesterday on four articles of impeachment, making him just the eighth federal judge in history to be removed by Congress. They also approved a motion barring him from holding future federal office. Porteous, who sat before senators in the well of the chamber as they voted separately on each count, issued a statement after the vote saying he disagreed but must now accept that judgment. “I am deeply saddened to be removed from office, but I felt it was important not...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina legislators upset with Governor Mark Sanford’s summer disappearance to see his lover in Argentina began a monthslong process yesterday that could ultimately remove the two-term Republican from office. The panel of the House Judiciary Committee that is debating impeachment discussed his five-day absence in June and problems related to it, including the failure to put someone in charge of the state while he was gone. At an hourlong meeting, the panel’s seven members also talked about how to proceed with at least three more hearings in...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, whose tryst with an Argentine lover became a wide-ranging scandal this summer, has been accused of breaking ethics laws by using taxpayer money for pricey airline seats, taking state planes for personal and political trips, and improperly using campaign funds. The details of ethics complaints against the second-term Republican governor were released yesterday by the state Ethics Commission. Sanford has been under scrutiny since he vanished for five days over the summer, reappearing to tearfully...