Impeachment Hearings. House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974. Statement of Representative Joseph Maraziti
Impeachment Hearings. House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974. Statement of Representative Joseph Maraziti
Impeachment Hearings. House Judiciary Committee, July 30, 1974. Statement of Representative Joseph Maraziti Peter Rodino (D - New Jersey). The gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Maraziti, is recognized for 4 minutes. Joseph J. Maraziti (R-New Jersey). Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In a recent case, the recent case last week, the court decided that if the President felt that he must exercise a right or a privilege for the welfare of the People of this nation be should do so. And the President did exactly that in the Jaworski case, and the court decided. Now, contrary to what has been said here today, the doctrine of executive privilege is still alive. It is still a valid doctrine, and the court stated that the bare exercise, the vacant exercise of the privilege is not sufficient. There must be a showing of national security interests or diplomatic considerations and so on. So, the doctrine is still valid. Now, this committee certainly has the right to recommend and to decide to recommend any number of articles of impeachment to the House. But as Mr. Dennis has stated, this committee does not have the right, and thank God it does not, to decide all constitutional questions and just what the Constitution means in every particular instance. Now, here we have a dispute between the executive branch and the legislative branch, and in cases of disputes between departments, the Supreme Court must decide and does decide. And I submit, Mr. Chairman, that this committee had a very, very simple solution to this dilemma. It was proposed in the Dennis motion several months ago, supported by some of us, to join the Jaworski application and make our application, get a decision, and let me say here and now that if the court had decided that the President should exhibit those tapes and deliver those tapes to this committee, and if he refused, I would have voted impeachment on that ground. But failing in that, this committee failing to take the action to support the Dennis motion and get a definitive decision, I cannot support this article of impeachment.