Thread by @sinth0me

The Clinton Impeachment Trial began on 7 January 1999 w/ Chief Justice Rehnquist swearing in everybody & a formal presentation of charges, followed by motions & legal briefs

House Managers, like prosecutors, began presenting evidence a week later - 7 d later exactly

The House side, or prosecution, presentation lasted 3 days

The defense presentation began on 19 January 1999 & also lasted 3 days

Then members of the Senate, House managers, & President Clinton's defense counsel were allowed 2 days for questions & CX

Sorry, Members of the Senate were given 2 days to question & CX both the House Managers & President Clinton's Defense Counsel

Under tte rules, all Qs from members were submitted in writing & read aloud by Chief Justice Rehnquist

This portion spanned 22-23 January 1999

President Clinton was tried on 2 articles of impeachment

I. Lying under oath to a grand jury (4 counts)

II Obstruction of Justice in the Sexual Harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones (7 counts)
.

On 25 January 1995, Sen. Robert Byrd made 2 motions to dismiss both articles for lack of merit

NB A separate motion to dismiss is required for each article

On 26 January 1999 Rep Bryant, one of the House managers, made a motion to call witnesses

NB Sen. dreaded the latter

In 1999 just as in 2019, the Senate knew a call for witnesses was coming & delayed it as long as possible

When the motion was made they chose to take it into private session for deliberation instead of allowing it to be publicly televised

27 January both motions were voted on

The motion by Sen Byrd to dismiss both articles of impeachment against President William J. Clinton FAILED on a vote of 56-44

The motion by House Managers to call witnesses PASSED 56-44

Defense made a motion to take depositions in private & film them for public presentation

Sorrry: As soon as the motion to call witnesses was passed, multiple motions to move directly to a vote on the articles & to suppress witness depositions from being public

It took 3d to depose Monica, Vernon Jordan, & Sydney Blumenthal

Then came an interesting vote on evidence

The Senate voted 70 to 30 in favor of excerpting the videotaped depositions instead of calling each witness to give public testimony

I hate treating my own tweets like they are a true text but I may 'thread app' this b/c it undermines a lot of popular & stupid notions abt trial

& just to be a complete jerk, & in the interest of consistency, I'll probably go ahead & include citations & references

& b/c there were a lot of remarkable things said & written about the Clinton Impeachment, incl. one of the best books on politics ever written, the one by Christopher Hitchens, I won't be able to resist adding a few codas

Refs would have to begin w/ a childhood spent watching the Clinton Impeachment & a lifetime passion for history, civics, & politics.

For the Timeline: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachme…

I consulted my paperback of the Starr Report but
washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politic…

Approved Articles of Impeachment
WaPo 20 Dec. 1998
washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politic…"

"The Articles Explained"
WaPo 18 Dec 1998
web.archive.org/web/2000081608…

HseJudCmte Report on the Impeachment w/ Minority & Dissenting Views
congress.gov/105/crpt/hrpt8…

@threadreaderapp unroll

Thank you