[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1410]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 1410]]

  MOTION TO DISMISS ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST WILLIAM JEFFERSON 
                                CLINTON

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to oppose the motion 
offered in the Court of Impeachment to dismiss the Articles of 
Impeachment against President Clinton. To support the motion would 
undermine the precedents and history of the impeachment process laid 
out in the Constitution. To my knowledge, the only instances in our 
history that the Senate has dismissed a Resolution of Impeachment 
without voting up or down on at least one of the Articles sent over by 
the House was when the impeached officer resigned before the Senate had 
the opportunity to act. I do not think we should deviate from our 
precedents on this occasion.
  In voting on the motion to dismiss, we are supposed to assume that 
even if the President did everything the House claims he did, we should 
still dismiss the Articles. So for purposes of this motion, we have to 
assume that he committed every act of obstruction of justice and 
witness tampering the House has claimed and every instance of perjury 
before the grand jury that the House claims. This would include perjury 
before a grand jury sitting to help the Congress determine whether the 
President committed impeachable offenses.
  Mr. President, I have by no means decided whether President Clinton 
has done everything the House alleges. But if I am to assume all these 
allegations are correct, I cannot see how in good conscience I can 
support the motion to dismiss and permit the President to stay in 
office.

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