The Schumer Principle: Lying Under Oath Is Not Impeachable

Twenty-one years ago, then-Rep. Charles Schumer worked to establish the precedent that a president could lie under oath.;_=[;

The question for Schumer was not whether the president was lying but what he was lying about.

The ultimate question underlying then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment was this: Did Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee, have a right to fair and honest proceedings when she brought a federal civil suit against the former governor of Arkansas who had gone on to become the president?

"She claimed the Governor made boorish and offensive sexual advances that she rejected, and that her superiors at work subsequently dealt with her in a hostile manner and punished her in a tangible way for rejecting those advances," Judge Susan Webber Wright would eventually write in a 1999 opinion in which she held Clinton in contempt.

Clinton, as Wright summarized the case, fought all the way to the Supreme Court to prevent Jones' suit from proceeding while he was president. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled against Clinton, and he had to give a deposition addressing Jones' suit in Wright's court.

"In addition, the Court travelled to Washington, D.C. at the request of the President to preside over his civil deposition on January 17, 1998," Wright wrote.

In her contempt opinion, the judge said Clinton made "intentionally false" statements in that deposition.

Her realization that Clinton might be in contempt of her court occurred the day Clinton testified before the grand jury convened by independent counsel Ken Starr. CARTOONS | Chip Bok View Cartoon

"On August, 17, 1998, the President appeared before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of OIC's criminal investigation and testified about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and his actions during the lawsuit," Wright wrote.

"That evening, the President discussed the matter in a televised address to the Nation," she wrote. "In his address, the President stated that although his answers at his January 17th deposition were 'legally accurate,' he did not volunteer information and that he did indeed have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was inappropriate and wrong."

"It was during the President's televised address that the Court first learned the President may be in contempt," she wrote.

"On two separate occasions, this Court ruled in clear and reasonably specific terms that plaintiff was entitled to information regarding any individuals with whom the President had sexual relations or proposed or sought to have sexual relations and who were during the relevant time frame state or federal employees," wrote Wright.

"Notwithstanding these Orders," she wrote, "the record demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the President responded to plaintiff's questions by giving false, misleading and evasive answers that were designed to obstruct the judicial process."

Wright pointed particularly to Clinton's answers regarding his relationship with Lewinsky, who had started work as a White House intern in July 1995.

"Although there are a number of aspects of the President's conduct in this case that might be characterized as contemptuous," Wright wrote, "the Court addresses at this time only those matters which no reasonable person would seriously dispute were violations of this Court's discovery Orders and which do not require a hearing, namely the President's sworn statements concerning whether he and Ms. Lewinsky had ever been alone together and whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky."

"Simply put," the judge concluded, "the President's deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. Lewinsky was intentionally false, and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false, notwithstanding tortured definitions and interpretatios of the term 'sexual relations.'"

In November 1998, Schumer was elected to the Senate, he but served as a lame-duck member of the House Judiciary Committee in December of that year when its Republican majority approved four articles of impeachment against Clinton. Articles I and II alleged perjury in the grand jury and the civil case. Article III alleged obstruction of justice. Article IV alleged abuse of power.

Schumer did not believe the evidence supported Articles III and IV. "Neither case is supported by the evidence," he said.

But when independent counsel Ken Starr testified before the committee on Nov. 19, 1998, Schumer told him, "To me, as I have said, and you have stated in your report, it is clear that the President lied when he testified before the grand jury not to cover a crime, but to cover embarrassing personal behavior."

So this case, this impeachment, boils down to two perjury charges," Schumer said in the committee on Dec. 10, 1998.

"I agree that the President's testimony was misleading, maddening, evasive, prevaricating, and designed to shed as little light as possible on his embarrassing personal behavior," Schumer said.

"I have said so since September, that the President lied in his testimony and to the American people, but that he did so about a sexual relationship, not about matters of governance," said Schumer.

"The Republicans want the American people, or most Republicans want the American people to equate lying under oath about sex with lying under oath about matters of State," he said.

"If we vote articles of impeachment, I fear that we will be setting a precedent that could seriously weaken the office of the presidency, whether the President is removed from office or not," said Schumer.

"In my judgment," he said, "we will be substantially lowering the bar for removing a sitting precedent so that we will be in danger of all too frequently investigating presidents and seeking to remove them from office."

Schumer's argument applies to the baseless impeachment his party is pursuing today, not the well-founded impeachment he resisted in 1998.

For those interested, the reason the Court ruled that way is because—amidst great fanfare— one President William Jefferson Clinton signed the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which among other things, allowed plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases to establish patterns of prior conduct by defendants, something that was not previously allowed. Without VAWA in place, none of what Bildo was impeached for, i.e., lying under oath and suborning perjury, would have occurred because Paula Jones's lawyers wouldn't have been able to ask.

Judge Susan Webber Wright wrote the 1999 opinion which held then-Pres Clinton in contempt.The ultimate question underlying Clinton's impeachment: Did Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee, have a right to fair and honest proceedings when she brought a federal civil suit against the former governor of Arkansas who had gone on to become the president? "Jones claimed the Governor made boorish and offensive sexual advances that she rejected, and that her job superiors dealt with her in a hostile manner and punished her for rejecting Clinton's advances,"

ITEM Clinton fought all the way to the USSC to prevent Jones' suit from proceeding. In 1997, the USSC ruled against Clinton; he had to give a deposition addressing Jones' suit in Wright's court. In her contempt opinion, the judge said Clinton made "intentionally false" statements in that deposition.

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STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE-—Bill Clinton gets impeached

David Schippers was asked by his friend, Congressman Henry Hyde, to be Chief Investigative Counsel for the US House Judiciary Committee. Schippers, a lifelong Democrat, accepted and took the job in April 1998. The Hyde Committee was holding an inquiry on whether Clinton had committed impeachable offences in his handling of the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit..... during which Clinton committed perjury regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The committee in December 1998 voted to impeach Clinton........a decision supported by Schippers.

On December 10, 1998, Schippers said to the committee:
“The President, then,
<><> has lied under oath in a civil deposition,
<><> he lied under oath in a criminal grand jury.
<><> he lied to the people,
<><> he lied to his Cabinet,
<><> he lied to his top aides,
<><> he lied under oath to the Congress of the United States.
"There’s no one left to lie to.”

Upon the passage of H. Res. 611, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives on grounds of perjury to a grand jury (by a 228–206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221–212 vote).

The Senate voted not to remove the impeached president.

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<><> Lewinsky recently came clean; a sitting President, Bill Clinton, suborned perjury from her;
<><> Suborning perjury is an impeachable offense;
<><> another penalty was loss of Clinton's law license.
<><> all of Clinton’s crimes happened while he was a sitting president:
<><> 47 Oral Office visits from Monica; subornation of perjury, lying under oath, hush money, etc etc etc.
<><> Clinton lied under oath about suborning Monica.
<><> Five charges against him were for obstruction of justice.
<><> Clinton had Lewinsky give Linda Tripp written instructions on how to properly perjure herself in the Willey sex matter.
<><> Bill’s pal, Vernon Jordan, arranged a $40,000-per-year cushy govt job for Lewinsky;
<><> QUID PRO QUO BIGTIME she got the job after she signed but before she filed a falsified affidavit saying she had NOT had sex with the president.
<><> Clinton's pal, UN Amb Bill Richardson, personally visit Lewinsky at the Watergate to offer her a govt job to shut her up.
<><> Mueller's report contains the claim that Russia taped Bill Clinton's phone sex with Monica Lewinsky
<><> Clinton lied under oath about suborning Monica.
<><> Five charges against him were for obstruction of justice.
<><> Clinton had Lewinsky give Linda Tripp written instructions on how to properly perjure herself in the Willey sex matter.
<><> Bill’s pal, Vernon Jordan, arranged a $40,000-per-year cushy govt job for Lewinsky;
<><> she got the job after she signed but before she filed a falsified affidavit saying she had NOT had sex with the president.
<><> Clinton's pal, UN Amb Bill Richardson, personally visit Lewinsky at the Watergate to offer her a govt job to shut her up.
<><> Mueller's report contains the claim that Russia taped Bill Clinton's phone sex with Monica Lewinsky

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