Chicago Attorney David Schippers, a Key Figure in Bill Clinton Impeachment, Dies

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 1, 2018 | Maureen O'Donnell

[kristinn]

David P. Schippers Jr., the Republican Party’s chief counsel in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died of pancreatic cancer Friday at 88 at his home in Grayslake.

In 1998, U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Illinois, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, appointed Mr. Schippers to be the committee’s chief investigator as it weighed whether to endorse the impeachment of Clinton.

After independent counsel Ken Starr had recommended 11 grounds for impeachment, including obstruction of justice and lying under oath, Mr. Schippers, a Chicago criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said there were at least 15.

“If you don’t impeach, then no House of Representatives will ever be able to impeach again,” he said. “The bar will be so high that only a convicted felon or a traitor will need to be concerned.”

In December 1998, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice, sending the question to the full House. Days later, for just the second time in history, the Republican-controlled House voted to impeach a president–in this case, for misleading officials about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

After a trial, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted on Feb. 12, 1999, to acquit Clinton. (Note: GOP actually controlled the Senate.)

“In the U.S. Senate, politics trumped principles, and polls trumped honor,” Mr. Schippers said in a book he wrote with Alan P. Henry, “Sellout: the Inside Story of President Clinton’s Impeachment.”

He felt “he had a solid case, and he didn’t think all of those people in the Senate were honoring their oath of office,” according to his son David. But his son said he also knew this: “You win some, you lose some.”

[doug from upland]

He appeared in my film, HILLARY! UNCENSORED. We had many good conversations.

[gloriabeth]

Agreed completely. He was a very good guy and those in GOP who voted against conviction helped create the evil we are seeing play out. Clinton should have been removed from office and, as difficult as that may be to accept, Gore become president. At the time Gore might have governed more to the center. (Don’t forget that he had at his side the steady, mentally healthy, well liked, and extremely bright Tipper.) David Schipper’s book told us that the corruption of the Republicans is what kept Clinton in office, brought the moral compass down to painful cultural lows, and helped create the hatred of GW Bush. Both the hatred and previously unimagined corruption ramped up even more. And that was in part because the media fawned over Obama and would not report on his sketchy, if non existent paper trail, and McCain, may he Rest In Peace, reassuring his base that Obama, despite his strong desire to fundamentally change America, was a Patriot!!!!