James T. Callahan: “I do not rise tonight in defense of guilt or innocence of our colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant). I rise…”

“I do not rise tonight in defense of guilt or innocence of our colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant). I rise tonight in a sense of what I think is fairness. I have a tremendous respect for this body and an overwhelming respect for the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and the difficult job that they have. I too compliment the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), for their tremendous efforts and integrity that has been so prevailed throughout this trial. I rise tonight in support of this resolution. I am not blessed with a law degree, I do not apologize for that, I just do not have one. But I do know that in court language, when one is going through a trial process, judges sometimes overrule things because of a clause. They say that a bell cannot be unrung. And, indeed, if we tonight ring this bell of guilt against the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) during this appeal process, we are only talking about a 6-week delay, in order to make this ultimate decision, in my opinion, it is unfair to my colleague. I think we ought to give him the benefit of the doubt. It is not professing that we believe he is innocent by delaying this action until September. It is just saying that we are going to give him a chance.”