The Senate on Wednesday found Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of U.S. District Court in Louisiana guilty on four articles of impeachment and removed him from the bench, the first time the Senate has ousted a federal judge in more than two decades.
Porteous, the eighth federal judge to be removed from office in this manner, was impeached by the House in March on four articles stemming from charges that he received cash and favors from lawyers who had dealings in his court, used a false name to elude creditors and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings. The behavior amounted to a "pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him," said the articles against him.
All 96 senators present voted "guilty" on the first article, which concerned his time as a state court judge and his subsequent failure to recuse himself from matters involving a former law partner, with whom he was accused of trading favors for cash. The other three articles of impeachment -- about meals, trips and car repair he was accused of receiving -- were passed with no fewer than 88 votes. The senators also voted 94 to 2 to disqualify him from holding future federal office.
"I am deeply saddened to be removed from office but I felt it was important not just to me but to the judiciary to take this fight to the Senate," Porteous said.
Porteous, 64, was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994. His removal from the bench took effect immediately. He will not receive his annual federal pension of $174,000. In 1989, Judges Alcee L. Hastings and Walter M. Nixon were impeached, found guilty by the Senate and removed from office.
NEW YORK TIMES
