Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974 (1/2)
[00.58.40] The CHAIRMAN. The time of the. gentleman has expired The gentleman from Michigan has 26 minutes remaining. Mr. HUTCHINSON. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Hogan. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. Mr. HOGAN. I thank the gentleman for the time. I think it is unfortunate that these deliberations, which to date have been handled in a very high manner, have, deteriorated into partisan wrangling tonight. And I think not only are these deliberations tonight unfair , but the entire handling of Mr. Nixon's tax returns are unfair. Someone has already alluded to the fact that the IRS decided that Mr. Nixon had to pay income on the honeymoon which his daughter spent at Camp David. Now, I ask the ladies and gentlemen of the committee whether or not this is fair? They also decided that he had to pay $27,291, or he had an additional income of $27,291.08 for the travel of his relatives and friends. Now, what that means is that if Air Force. One were flying to San Clemente, and Julie or Tricia and their husbands were going along, the President has been required to pay the fair market value of the travel Computed on the basis of the cost of traveling first class on commercial airlines to the various destinations reported in the flight logs. This is income to him as declared by IRS. Now, I ask the ladies and gentlemen of this committee if that is fair? And I address a question to their consciences. Let us take a hypothetical case. Suppose the, members of this committee went overseas on a study mission and their wives accompanied them. Now, if that happened, as it has, I wonder if the members would and have reported the first-class air fare on their own income tax as income to them? I think the answer is obviously they did not. One of the other things that troubles me very much about this is the not only -unfairness but this in no way rises to the level of an impeachable offense. The, staff report on grounds for Presidential impeachment makes clear, and I am quoting: As a technical term, high crime signified a crime against the system of government not merely a serious crime. This element of injury to the commonwealth, that is, to the state itself and to the Constitution, was historically the criteria for distinguishing a high crime or misdemeanor from an ordinary one. Now, obviously in the drafting of this, the words previous previously were included against the United State's after high crimes and misdemeanors so that it is clear that that is what, the Founding Fathers intended. The. CHAIRMAN. The, time of the gentleman from Maryland has expired. The gentleman from Iowa has 24 minutes remaining. Mr. MEZVINSKY. I yield 5 minutes to Mr. Seiberling. the CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Ohio is recognized. Mr. SEIBERLING. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mention has been made that President Lyndon Johnson and Senator Humphrey have also mad gifts of their papers and taken deductions But I think It also ought to be. mentioned that there has been at no time any suggestion that there was any backdating of deeds or other fraudulent acts in connection with that gift. their gifts. Now. I must say that the facts In this situation have given me a great deal of trouble. because the facts are largely undisputed, what is in dispute are the conclusions we ought to draw from them. The evidence is largely circumstantial. but I remember the Writer Thoreau once said that, "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." Now, what have we found In this case ? We have found a fraudulent deed and I do not think there is any doubt of it at least I do not have any doubt about that in my mind. And that deed -was used to secure an enormous tax deduction. Now, the question is whether the President was involved in that fraud. The Internal Revenue Service has already determined that, he was involved in negligence and they assessed negligence penalties against him which be has paid. Now, the question is how do we decide whether there is sufficient, cause, to send it to the Senate for a trial? And my feeling, after considering all........