Meet Alcee Hastings, Congressman from Florida’s 23d District. Congressman Hastings used to be Judge Hastings, appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter.
Judge Hastings was impeached by the House and removed by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors – to wit, for accepting a rather large bribe in return for lenient sentencing of a criminal defendant. The attorney who provided the bribe went to prison and Hastings went free because his accomplice refused to testify against him. His ultimate impeachment and removal from the bench was quite bipartisan. Here is Wikipedia’s summary of the affair:
In 1981, Hastings was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He was acquitted by a jury after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).
In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. He was then convicted in 1989 by the United States Senate, becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate. The vote on the first article was 69 for and 26 opposed, providing two votes more than the two-thirds of those present that were needed to convict. The first article accused the judge of conspiracy. Conviction on any single article was enough to remove the judge from office. The Senate vote cut across party lines, with U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont voting to convict his fellow party member, and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter voting to acquit.
So, instead of going to prison, Hastings went to Congress – seems sort of fitting, doesn’t it? And now he sits on the coveted House Rules Committee where Democrats – in his own words – have no intention of following the rules.
We all knew the Democrat Party was corrupt. We’re just now discovering the depths of it.
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