December 9, 1998. Copyright 1998. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

WHITE HOUSE MOUNTS LAST-DITCH DEFENCE

LONDON, December 9, Graphic News: WHITE HOUSE lawyers are making a last-ditch impeachment defence of President Clinton, saying his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky affair was sinful and misleading but did not warrant his removal from office.
In a presentation to the House Judiciary Committee, and later in an exhaustive 184-page report given to the panel, ClintonÕs legal team contrasted the Monica Lewinsky affair with the Watergate scandal and concluded that ClintonÕs Ôdenial of a private indiscretionÕ did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanours required by the Constitution for impeachment.
ÔWhereas President Nixon used governmental agencies including the CIA and FBI to thwart the investigation into his lies, President Clinton did nothing of the sort,Õ ClintonÕs lawyers said during a two-day White House presentation to the House Judiciary Committee.
ÔAs surely as we all know that what he did is sinful, we also know it is not impeachable,Õ special counsel Greg Craig told the committee.
ÔThe president wants everyone to know, the committee, the Congress and the country, that he is genuinely sorry for the pain and the damage he has caused and the wrongs he has committed,Õ Craig said.
ClintonÕs legal team hope the message will resonate with some 25 moderate lawmakers who face a cliffhanger vote in the full House of Representatives next week on possible articles of impeachment against the president.
Clinton later got a political boost with a report that Representative Amo Houghton, a New York Republican who had been undecided, would vote against impeachment, bringing to six the number of Republicans who have stated publicly that they oppose impeachment.
/ENDS

Sources: BBC World Service, Associated Press, Reuters