Political Quotes

“Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk for both the President's counsel and the House managers. The CHIEF JUSTICE. The question from Senator Manchin reads as follows: The Framers took the words ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' straight out of English law, where it had been applied to impeachments for 400 years before our Constitution was written. The Framers were well aware when they chose those words that Parliament had impeached officials for ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' that were not indictable as crimes. The House has repeatedly impeached, and the Senate has convicted, officers for ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' that were not indictable crimes. Even Mr. Dershowitz said in 1998 that an impeachable offense ``certainly doesn't have to be a crime.'' What has happened in the past 22 years to change the original intent of the Framers and the historic meaning of the term ``high crimes and misdemeanors?'' It is counsel for the President's turn. Mr. Counsel DERSHOWITZ. Mr. Chief Justice, Senators, what happened since 1998 is that I studied more, did more research, read more documents, and like any academic, altered my views. That is what happens. That is what professors ought to do, and I keep reading more, and I keep writing more, and I keep refining my views. In 1998 the issue before this Senate was not whether a crime was required; it was whether the crime that Clinton was charged with was a high crime.…”