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INTERNATIONAL
Gregan senator may also have broken the criminal law
Senate subpoenas
Packwood diaries
By WILLIAM SCALLY
WASHINGTON: The Senate
voted on Tuesday to compel Sena
' tor Bob Packwood to surrender di
aries, to its Ethics Committee for
its investigation into sexual mis
conduct charges.
The 94-6 vote came after two days
of public debate during which the Ore
gon Republican fought passionately to
convince his colleagues his rights to
privacy were being invaded by the
committee's subpoena.
The committee needed the full Sen
ate's approval to have a court enforce
the subpoena.
Among the six who voted no were
Senator Dennis DeConcinci, an Arizo
na Democrat, and five Republicans.
But the Senate defeated, by a 77-23
vote, a. proposal by Republican Alan
Simpson of Wyoming to limit the sub
poena to "relevant" diaries after a pro
posal to have a former judge vet the
documents for relevancy had been
withdrawn in the face of certain defeat.
Senator Packwood has been ac
cused of making unwanted sexual ad
vances to more than two dozen
women over many years and the Eth
ics Committee has been investigating
the charges since last February.
It also now wants to look into a
possible violation of criminal law re
lating to a report that Senator Pack
wood encouraged a lobbyist to offer a
job to his former wife.
Ethics Committee chairman Rich
ard Bryan, a Nevada Democrat, said
Senator Packwood's lawyers refused to
hand over the 1989 to 1993 diaries
Senator Packwood: says his right to privacy is being invaded. Help
Senator Packwood: says his right
to privacy is being invaded.
after the committee counsel had spot
ted entries relating to this possible vio
lation.
The committee has already re
viewed 5000 pages covering 20 years,
of Senator Packwood's 82,000-page di
aries.
During the debate, senators were at
pains to note that they were not de
fending Senator Packwood on the
charges against him.
But Senator John Danforth, a Mis
souri Republican, who sought to limit
the scope of the subpoena, said the
sweeping subpoena was "a violation
... of the basic principles of civil liber
ties in the Fourth Amendment".
He called the committee plan "a
blockbuster of a precedent".
Senator Bryan said the Simpson
amendment would have emasculated
the subpoena, allowing Senator Pack
wood to decide for himself what was
relevant.
He said Senator Packwood was be
ing held to the same standard that
would apply to other Americans being
investigated by a grand jury, while
Senator Simpson's proposal would
create a "dual standard".
Senate Republican Leader Bob
Dole said that if the two-day debate
had any silver lining it was that the
Senate did not sweep charges of mis
conduct under the rug.
Senator Dole said that now the issue
was moving to the courts a resolution
might be as long as three years away
- with the losers being both Senator
Packwood and his women accusers.
Only six weeks ago the committee was
saying it hoped to wind up its prelimi
nary inquiry by the end of October.
The vote authorises the case to be
taken to US District Court here.
Tempers among senators, sitting
stolidly through hours of legalistic ar
guments, began to show signs of fray
ing as Senator Packwood, 61, argued
the demand for the diaries was unfair.
Senator Bryan says Senator Pack
wood stopped their review of the last
few years only after he learned investi
gators suspected they might contain
evidence of other violations.
Senator Bryan last week raised the
possibility of law-breaking by Senator
Packwood in addition to sexual ha
rassment charges.
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