A bit more on Hastings. Back in 1989, when then-Judge Hastings was tried in the senate, one of the impeachment managers was Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). Conyers, of course, is now the incoming Chairman of the Judiciary committee. Then he was the head of the subcommittee that investigated the Hastings case and recommended his impeachment in the House. Conyers went into the thing wanted to find Hastings’ innocent, but the facts just said otherwise.
Here’s a passage from an article from the Washington Times from October 19th, 1989 …
House prosecutors also said they had no doubt Judge Hastings lied 14 times to a federal jury to avoid conviction on conspiracy in 1983, and later revealed the confidential content of a federally authorized wiretap to Miami Mayor Steve Clark.
“Justice and the integrity of our government . . . argue the judge should be removed from the bench,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat.
Mr. Conyers – a longtime leader in the civil rights movement – said no one had initially wanted more than he to find the judge innocent.
“No one was more predisposed . . . to doubt his accusers” or more “sympathetic to the notion that the [1983] jury verdict should have settled the matter,” Mr. Conyers said. But, he said, during the course of impeachment proceedings this summer, “I heard some evidence that forced me to re-evaluate my position.”
As I said before, there may not have been enough evidence to convict Hastings in his criminal trial. But Conyers had little doubt that Hastings was a corrupt judge.
A separate note: I’ve researched this a bit now and found various fragments of Conyers statements before the senate during Hastings trial. But I have not been able to find a complete transcript. Not even at Thomas.gov. If anyone knows where one is available on the web, please let me know.
