[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 545 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 545

   Impeaching Kenneth W. Starr, an independent counsel of the United 
 States appointed pursuant to 28 United States Code section 593(b), of 
                     high crimes and misdemeanors.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 1998

 Mr. Hastings of Florida submitted the following resolution; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Impeaching Kenneth W. Starr, an independent counsel of the United 
 States appointed pursuant to 28 United States Code section 593(b), of 
                     high crimes and misdemeanors.

    Resolved, That Kenneth W. Starr, an independent counsel of the 
United States of America, is impeached for high crimes and 
misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be 
exhibited to the Senate:
    Articles of Impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in the name of itself and of all the 
people of the United States of America, against Kenneth W. Starr, an 
independent counsel of the United States of America, in maintenance and 
support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and 
misdemeanors.

                               Article I

    In his conduct of the office of independent counsel, Kenneth W. 
Starr has violated his oath and his statutory and constitutional duties 
as an officer of the United States and has acted in ways that were 
calculated to and that did usurp the sole power of impeachment that the 
Constitution of the United States vests exclusively in the House of 
Representatives and that were calculated to and did obstruct and impede 
the House of Representatives in the proper exercise of its sole power 
of impeachment. The acts by which Independent Counsel Starr violated 
his duties and attempted to and did usurp the sole power of impeachment 
and impede its proper exercise include:
            (1) On September 9, 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth W. 
        Starr transmitted two copies of a ``Referral to the United 
        States House of Representatives pursuant to Title 28, United 
        States Code, Sec. 595(c).'' As part of that Referral, Mr. Starr 
        submitted a 445-page report (the ``Starr Report'') that 
        included an extended narration and analysis of evidence 
        presented to a grand jury and of other material and that 
        specified the grounds upon which Mr. Starr had concluded that a 
        duly elected President of the United States should be impeached 
        by the House of Representatives. By submitting the Starr 
        Report, Mr. Starr usurped the sole power of impeachment and 
        impeded the House in the proper exercise of that power in 
        various ways, including the following:
                    (a) In preparing the Starr Report, Mr. Starr 
                misused the powers granted and violated the duties 
                assigned independent counsel under the provisions of 
                Title 28 of the United States Code. Section 595(c) does 
                not authorize or require independent counsel to submit 
                a report narrating and analyzing the evidence and 
                identifying the specific grounds on which independent 
                counsel believes the House of Representatives should 
                impeach the President of the United States. By 
                submitting the Starr Report in the form he did, Mr. 
                Starr misused his powers and preempted the proper 
                exercise of the sole power of impeachment that the 
                Constitution assigned to the House of Representatives. 
                Mr. Starr thereby committed a high crime and 
                misdemeanor against the Constitution and the people of 
                the United States of America.
                    (b) In his preparation and submission of the Starr 
                Report, Mr. Starr further misused his powers and 
                violated his duties as independent counsel and 
                arrogated unto himself and effectively preempted and 
                undermined the proper exercise of power of impeachment 
                that the Constitution allocated exclusively to the 
                House of Representatives. Mr. Starr knew or should have 
                known, and he acted to assure, that the House of 
                Representatives would promptly release to the public 
                any report that he transmitted to the House of 
                Representatives under the authority of Section 595(c). 
                With that knowledge, Mr. Starr prepared and transmitted 
                a needlessly pornographic report calculated to inflame 
                public opinion and to preclude the House of 
                Representatives from following the procedures and 
                observing the precedents it had established for the 
                conduct of a bipartisan inquiry to determine whether a 
                President of the United States had committed a high 
                crime or misdemeanor in office meriting impeachment. 
                Mr. Starr thereby committed a high crime and 
                misdemeanor against the Constitution and the people of 
                the United States.
            (2) Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr further usurped 
        and arrogated unto himself the powers that belong solely to the 
        House of Representatives by using and threatening to use the 
        subpoena powers of a federal grand jury to compel an incumbent 
        President of the United States to testify before a federal 
        grand jury as part of an investigation whose primary purpose 
        had become and was the development of evidence that the 
        President had committed high crimes and misdemeanors justifying 
        his impeachment and removal from Office. With respect to the 
        President of the United States, the only means by which the 
        holder of that office may be called to account for his conduct 
        in office is through the exercise by the House of 
        Representatives of the investigative powers that the 
        constitutional assignment of the sole power of impeachment 
        conferred upon it. Mr. Starr improperly used and manipulated 
        the powers of the grand jury and his office to effectively 
        impeach the President of the United States of America and force 
        the House of Representatives to ratify his decision. Mr. Starr 
        thereby committed a high crime and misdemeanor against the 
        Constitution and the people of the United States.
    In all of this, Kenneth W. Starr has acted in a manner contrary to 
his trust as an independent counsel of the United States and subversive 
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of 
law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United 
States.
    Wherefore Kenneth W. Starr, by such conduct, warrants impeachment 
and trial, and removal from office.

                               Article II

    In his conduct of the office of independent counsel, Kenneth W. 
Starr violated the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution 
of the United States of America and his duties as an officer of the 
United States and acted in ways that were calculated to and that did 
unconstitutionally undermine the office of President of the United 
States and obstruct, impede, and impair the ability of an incumbent 
President of the United States to fully and effectively discharge the 
duties and responsibilities of his office on behalf and for the benefit 
of the people of the United States of America, by whom he had been duly 
elected. The acts by which Mr. Starr violated his oath and his duties 
and undermined the office of President and obstructed, impeded, and 
impaired the ability of the incumbent President to fully and 
effectively discharge the duties of that office include:
            (1) Mr. Starr unlawfully and improperly disclosed and 
        authorized disclosures of grand jury material for the purpose 
        of embarrassing the President of the United States and 
        distracting him from and impairing his ability to execute the 
        duties of the office to which the people of the United States 
        had elected him. Mr. Starr has thereby committed high crimes 
        and misdemeanors against the Constitution and people of the 
        United States.
            (2) Mr. Starr engaged in a wilful and persistent course of 
        conduct that was calculated to and that did wrongfully demean, 
        embarrass, and defame an incumbent President of the United 
        States and that thereby undermined and impaired the President's 
        ability to properly execute the duties of the office to which 
        the people of the United States had elected him, including not 
        only Mr. Starr's wrongful disclosures of grand jury material, 
        but also other improper conduct, such as his actions and 
        conduct calculated to suggest, without foundation, that the 
        incumbent President had participated in preparing a so-called 
        ``talking points'' outline to improperly influence the 
        testimony of one or more persons scheduled to be deposed in a 
        private civil action. By his wilful and persistent conduct in 
        misrepresenting as well as improperly disclosing evidence that 
        he had gathered, Mr. Starr committed high crimes and 
        misdemeanors against the Constitution and the people of the 
        United States of America.
            (3) Mr. Starr intentionally, wilfully, and improperly 
        embarrassed the people and the President of the United States 
        by including in the Starr Report an unnecessary and improper 
        and extended detailed, salacious, and pornographic narrative 
        account of the consensual sexual encounters that a grand jury 
        witness testified she had with the incumbent President of the 
        United States. By including that unnecessary and improper 
        pornographic narrative, Mr. Starr intended to and did undermine 
        and imperil the ability of the President to conduct the foreign 
        relations of the United States of America and otherwise to 
        execute the duties of the office to which the people of the 
        United States had elected him, and he knowingly and improperly 
        embarrassed the United States as a nation. By including that 
        narrative, knowing and intending that it would be published and 
        disseminated, Mr. Starr committed a high crime and misdemeanor 
        against the Constitution and the people of the United States of 
        America.
    In all of this, Kenneth W. Starr has acted in a manner contrary to 
his trust as an independent counsel of the United States and subversive 
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of 
law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United 
States.
    Wherefore Kenneth W. Starr, by such conduct, warrants impeachment 
and trial, and removal from office.

                              Article III

    In his conduct of the office of independent counsel, Kenneth W. 
Starr violated the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution 
of the United States of America and the duties he had assumed as an 
officer of the United States and acted in ways that were calculated to 
and that did unconstitutionally arrogate unto himself powers that the 
Constitution of the United States assigned to the federal courts; that 
were calculated to and did undermine the institution of the grand jury 
established by the Constitution of the United States; and that were 
calculated to and did undermine and bring into disrepute the office of 
independent counsel and offices of all those charged with investigating 
and prosecuting crimes against the United States. The acts by which Mr. 
Starr violated his oath and his duties and by which he undermined the 
federal courts and the grand jury and undermined and demeaned the 
office and role of all federal prosecutors include:
            (1) Mr. Starr disclosed and authorized and approved the 
        disclosure and misuse of grand jury materials in violation of 
        Rule 6(e)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and 
        with contempt for the federal courts and for the rights of 
        those who appear before grand juries of the United States and 
        of those who are subjects of grand jury investigations.
            (2) Throughout his investigations, Mr. Starr abused the 
        powers of his office and condoned the abuse of those powers to 
        improperly intimidate and manipulate citizens of the United 
        States who were interviewed or called to testify before a grand 
        jury or who were actual or potential targets of his 
        investigations and to deprive them of rights guaranteed to all 
        citizens of the United States. Mr. Starr and subordinates for 
        whose conduct he is responsible further abused and misused the 
        powers of the office of independent counsel and the powers of 
        the grand jury to improperly invade and needlessly intrude upon 
        the privacy of individuals and to demean the rights guaranteed 
        to all by the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of 
        the United States.
            (3) Throughout his investigations, Mr. Starr has abused and 
        misused and has authorized and approved the abuse and misuse of 
        the powers of his office in ways that have demeaned the 
        prosecutorial office and that have undermined and will 
        undermine the ability of other prosecutorial officers of the 
        United States to discharge their duty to take care that laws of 
        the United States be faithfully executed.
            (4) In his conduct of the office of independent counsel, 
        Mr. Starr has needlessly and unjustifiably expended and wasted 
        funds of the United States. Over the past four years, Mr. Starr 
        has expended more than forty million dollars ($40,000,000) in a 
        relentless pursuit of investigations and prosecutions that he 
        knew or should have known did not merit and could not justify 
        such extraordinary expenditures.
    By the conduct described in this Article III of these Articles of 
Impeachment, Kenneth W. Starr committed high crimes and misdemeanors 
against the Constitution and the people of the United States of 
America.
    In all of this, Kenneth W. Starr has acted in a manner contrary to 
his trust as an independent counsel of the United States and subversive 
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of 
law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United 
States.
    Wherefore Kenneth W. Starr, by such conduct, warrants impeachment 
and trial, and removal from office.

                               Article IV

    By his conduct as an officer of the United States of America, 
including the conduct described in Articles I through III of these 
Articles of Impeachment, Kenneth W. Starr has violated the oath he took 
to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. 
He has acted and persisted in acting in ways that were calculated to 
and did embarrass the United States and the people of the United States 
before the international community and that were calculated to and did 
undermine the ability of the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, 
and the Judicial Branch to effectively exercise the powers and 
discharge the duties assigned to each by the Constitution of the United 
States of America. He has unconstitutionally and improperly exercised 
powers that were not his to exercise and has acted in ways that were 
calculated to and did improperly demean a President of the United 
States and diminish the capacity of the President to effectively 
discharge the duties that the people of the United States elected him 
to perform. He has unconstitutionally and improperly exercised his 
powers and has acted in ways that were calculated to and did demean the 
House of Representatives and that have effectively deprived the House 
of Representatives of its right to exercise its sole power of 
impeachment in a deliberate and bipartisan manner that was consistent 
with the procedures and precedents it had established in prior 
proceedings and inquiries to determine whether the President of the 
United States should be impeached. He has unlawfully and improperly 
exercised his powers in ways that demeaned the institution of the 
federal grand jury, that demonstrated contempt of the courts of the 
United States and the rules that govern their proceedings, and that 
demeaned the office of independent counsel and offices of all those 
charged with responsibility for seeing that the laws of the United 
States are faithfully executed. By his conduct as an independent 
counsel, Kenneth W. Starr has committed high crimes and misdemeanors 
against the Constitution and the people of the United States.
    In all of this, Kenneth W. Starr has acted in a manner contrary to 
his trust as an independent counsel of the United States and subversive 
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of 
law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United 
States.
    Wherefore Kenneth W. Starr, by such conduct, warrants impeachment 
and trial, and removal from office.
                                 <all>