Alcee Hastings—the congressman from Florida’s 23rd Congressional District—was elected to office in 1992, even though controversy surrounded Hastings throughout his 1992 campaign, election, and subsequent seating in the House of Representatives. While serving as a U.S. federal judge in 1988, he was impeached by the Congress of the United States, and then convicted of perjury and conspiracy to accept a bribe and was removed from office in 1989. He has been re-elected twice since then.
Hastings’s troubles in the judiciary stemmed from a case in 1981 when he was indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on charges of plotting to obtain a $150,000 bribe in exchange for giving two convicted Miami mobsters lighter sentences. According to a report in the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, after Hastings’s acquittal in 1983, a special investigating committee of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Hastings had fabricated evidence to win acquittal and two fellow judges alleged that Hastings had perjured himself to avoid conviction. The panel sent findings to Congress recommending that Hastings be impeached.
Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to remove federal officials for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The House votes on impeachment and the Senate conducts the trial. In Hastings’s case, the House voted 413-3 to impeach and the Senate voted 69-26 to convict on charges of perjury and conspiracy to accept a bribe. At that point, Hastings was stripped of his lifetime position.
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House Intelligence Committee controversy
After the 2006 United States House of Representatives elections, Hastings attracted controversy after it was reported that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might appoint him as head of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Pelosi reportedly favored Hastings instead of the ranking Democrat Jane Harman due to political differences and support for Hastings by the Congressional Black Caucus.[5]
However, Hastings’ impeachment led to accusations that Democrats, who had campaigned against a Republican “culture of corruption,” were themselves elevating a corrupt official to a committee chair. On November 28, 2006, Pelosi announced that Hastings would not be the next chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.[6]
In January of 2007 Speaker Nancy Pelosi choose Congressman Sylvester Reyes of Texas as the next Chairman of the powerful Select Committee on Intelligence. While Congressman Hastings was passed over to chair the full committee he became chair of the sub-committee.
While serving as a U.S. federal judge in 1988, he was impeached by the Congress of the United States, and then convicted of perjury and conspiracy to accept a bribe and was removed from office in 1989. He has been re-elected twice since then.
So what does that tell you about the VOTERS who RE-ELECTED him?!!!??