DEFENDING THE PRESIDENT

December 8, 1998
		Jim Lehrer starts the day before the President's defense gets underway with Washington correspondent Margaret Warner, Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant and National Journal and Newsweek columnist Stuart Taylor.

Return to the Analysis Section. Return to Impeachment Coverage. The Full-text of Kenneth Starr's report to Congress and the White House rebuttal (From Online NewsHour) For more on Whitewater visit Frontline's Once Upon a Time in Arkansas. Text and analysis of President Clinton's address to the nation following his grand jury testimony. A look at the independent counsel law and how it affected one case (From Frontline) President Clinton's interview with Jim Lehrer in which he denies any relationship with Monica Lewinsky.     The House Judiciary Committee Background on the impeachment process from JURIST, the Law Professor Network.	JIM LEHRER: And good morning from Washington. I'm Jim Lehrer. Welcome to PBS's special NewsHour coverage of the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President Clinton. Today the President's attorneys begin a two-day defense presentation. We expect to hear from Gregory Craig, special assistant to the President and special counsel and to Charles Ruff, the White House counsel. As part of the presentation, they will call four panels of witnesses over the next two days. We will be broadcasting today's proceedings in full. The NewsHour's chief Washington correspondent, Margaret Warner, is here with me this morning, and so are two commentators, Stuart Taylor, a columnist for the National Journal and Newsweek magazines and Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant.
	Charges that have yet to be made.
	JIM LEHRER: Tom, how would you characterize what is to happen here today and tomorrow? TOM OLIPHANT: This is going to be a little weird on one level at least in that we are going to see an actual defense on the law and the Constitution and more on the facts than some people realize for two days against charges that have yet to be made. Behind the scenes this committee's Republican majority is working on the charges which have not yet been presented in detail. But you will hear an actual defense with a beginning, a middle, and an end. JIM LEHRER: And there you see on the screen Congressman Henry Hyde, the chairman of the committee, who said yesterday at a news conference that he felt that the Republicans had made a compelling case for impeachment. Stuart, what would you add to what Tom said about what this is about these next two days? STUART TAYLOR: Well, I think the nature of the defense, it's a little confusing, because they have these three or four panels of witnesses, but I think the essence of it is they will be arguments that this is not impeachable conduct, even if all the allegations against the President are true; that it doesn't rise to the level of impeachment. There will be scholars presenting that. And former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach will be saying that's especially true when public opinion is against it and when the impeachment be on a party-line vote. There will be arguments that this is not the kind of conduct that - the kind of perjury for which people are ordinarily prosecuted and maybe arguments that it's not perjury at all, even if all the allegations are true - the factual allegations. And there will be attacks on the legitimacy of the process. Both Kenneth Starr's investigation - although that's no longer the major theme - JIM LEHRER: I thought they were going to back off that one. STUART TAYLOR: And I think you'll hear a little bit more trashing of Mr. Starr. It won't be Exhibit A, but it will be in there. And on the legitimacy of the current partisan process in the House of Representatives, one of the President's witnesses, for example, Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman, will say that a lame duck impeachment is not valid in the next Congress.
	Raising the stakes.
	JIM LEHRER: Would you expect, Tom, a serious attack on the process by the Democrats? TOM OLIPHANT: No. I don't think that's going to be the emphasis. I think the most important point or the most important thing the White House wants to do today is to raise the stakes of this vote as high as possible for the twenty-five to thirty-five people who have yet to firmly make up their minds how they want to vote. JIM LEHRER: Those are mostly moderate Republicans. TOM OLIPHANT: To raise the stakes as high as they can as a constitutional issue, as a factual issue, and even as a more narrow legal issue. JIM LEHRER: Now, Margaret, let's go through some of the players here. First of all, Gregory Craig, who is the special counsel who was brought in, what do we need to know about him? MARGARET WARNER: Well, the most important thing we need to know about Greg Craig is he was brought in to a White House that - the impeachment defense basically in disarray - that is, the political folks weren't talking to the legal folks and so on, and Greg Craig is supposed to quarterback and coordinate all of this. He's a longtime acquaintance of the Clintons from Yale Law School days. JIM LEHRER: And we're about - here we go. Here we go with Chairman Hyde.