Congressional Inquiry Quotes
In a celebrated case involving the right of the U. S. House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee to "expose" someone as a Communist, Mr. Justice Brennan wrote:
When his Republican political opponents controlled Congress, they had constant Congressional investigations of the President and his wife. Tens of millions of dollars were spent, and the President was constantly diverted from the important problems to deal with the investigations. For all that time and money all they came up with was the fact that Clinton was having a sexual liaison with a White House intern and lied about it to keep the information away from his wife, daughter and the public. The Republican majority impeached Clinton late in his second term, and when a trial was held in the Senate, the Republicans could not even get 50% of the Senators to vote “Guilty.” Clinton began to joke about the ineffectual Republican efforts.
The issue had first arisen during the Watergate Scandal, where there was concern that if the House held impeachment hearings of President Nixon, he might refuse to provide documents or order others in the Executive Branch not to testify. In this hearing, they were discussing the possible impeachment of President George W. Bush.
Abrams had been convicted of "withholding information from Congress" in his Congressional testimony.
