Prosecutors Plead For Witnesses

(1/26/99)

WASHINGTON (AP) _ House prosecutors pleaded with the Senate on Tuesday to issue subpoenas for "a pitiful three" impeachment trial witnesses _ Monica Lewinsky and two others _ and to request that President Clinton answer questions under oath.

As the Senate went behind closed doors to debate the witness issue, the White House said Clinton has no intention of submitting to questioning, even if the Senate votes to request it. "It's time to wrap this up," presidential spokesman Joe Lockhart said of the trial, in its third week.

Clinton's lawyers, joined by Senate Democrats, also warned that the issuance of any subpoenas for witness depositions would raise the possibility of long delays in the proceedings.

Ms. Lewinsky, summoned to Washington over the weekend to be interviewed by the House prosecutors, checked out of her hotel and flew home to California. Her lawyer said she would return if ordered to answer further questions.

The prosecutors said they had trimmed their list to pass Senate muster. "A pitiful three, and I would think you would want to proceed with that minimum testimony," said Rep. Henry Hyde, the lead prosecutor.

Democratic leader Tom Daschle conceded that the Republicans, with a 55-45 majority, were likely to prevail when the roll is called on Wednesday, forcing approval of subpoenas for Ms. Lewinsky, presidential friend Vernon Jordan and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal. "I think it's going to be virtually a party-line vote, unfortunately," he said.

All witnesses would be questioned under oath at private depositions about the facts concerning allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice by the president in connection with his efforts to conceal a sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. Guidelines for the questioning remain to be worked out.

Tuesday's closed-door Senate session was the second in as many nights. As was the case on Monday, a request by Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota to open the doors was rejected.

The winnowed list of three witnesses marked a concession by the House prosecutors, who were fearful that a more extensive request would cost them the support of wavering Republicans and seal the defeat of their effort for testimony.

"We're down from thinking we ought to have 10, 12, maybe 15 witnesses, to three," Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida said during a four-hour legal argument on the Senate floor during the afternoon.

Said Hyde: "We have a good case, we have an excellent case without the witnesses, but the witnesses help you."

The president's lawyers and Democratic allies reacted with a mixture of scorn and warnings, knowing that public opinion polls favor a swift end to the trial and that Clinton's acquittal on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice is virtually assured.

"The time to end the trial is now, and the correct number of witnesses is zero," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts told reporters in an interview off the Senate floor.

From the lectern stationed in the well of the chamber, lead Clinton attorney David Kendall said the House had yet to prove its case. He likened the prosecutors to a blackjack player betting against long odds. "Here, they're simply gambling. ... I think it has no place in the impeachment trial here when the fate of the president is at stake."

The day's events set the stage for a pair of showdown votes on Wednesday, first on a proposal by Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia to dismiss all charges and bring the trial to an end, then on the call for depositions.

Byrd's proposal is widely expected to fail, by a party-line vote or more. Democratic officials have expressed concern that they may suffer defections from two or three members of their caucus, including Sens. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Bob Graham of Florida and possibly John Edwards of North Carolina, in office less than a month.

The second vote would take place on the call for subpoenas only, meaning that the Senate will not vote, for the time being at least, on whether to request that Clinton submit to a deposition. Majority leader Trent Lott has labored behind the scenes to make sure GOP defections don't doom the proposal for subpoenas.

If the proposal is approved, the Senate still would have to resolve numerous details about the subpoenas, as well as grapple with White House demands for an extensive time to review records not previously made available to the president's lawyers.

With Republicans professing eagerness to wrap up the trial quickly, Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., circulated proposed ground rules at a closed-door GOP caucus. They would call for each witness to be deposed for a maximum of four hours, two hours for the House and two hours for the president's lawyers. Witnesses could be questioned only about areas of factual dispute. The sessions would be videotaped for senators to view.

Following the depositions, the Senate would decide whether to approve live testimony in the well of the Senate.

Lott's spokesman, John Czwartacki, said the Mississippi Republican hopes the depositions can be wrapped up by early next week.

At a news conference, Daschle said Democrats would insist that Clinton be treated fairly.

In addition to being entitled to depose the witnesses, Daschle said the White House should have access to 54,000 pages in the record it has yet to see, as well as voluminous documents assembled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. In addition, he said, the "White House itself may want to call witnesses."

Prosecutors want to question Jordan, an attorney and longtime Clinton friend, about his efforts to find Ms. Lewinsky a job at the same time she had been subpoenaed in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against Clinton.

Blumenthal, who is close to first lady Hillary Clinton, is one of the White House aides to whom the president falsely denied having had a sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. The article of impeachment alleging obstruction of justice says Clinton lied to his aides so they would pass on the false information to the grand jury.