Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Peter Rodino (D New Jersey). I recognize the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Owens. Wayne Owens (D Utah). Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Article I of impeachment focused on many instances of one the immense abuse, the coverup of the Watergate break-in. In contrast, Article 11 is a collection of separate individual very serious abuses of the power of the Presidency. These are charges that the President used his power or knowingly permitted his power to be used to do something unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, or to do something legal but for important political or nonlegitimate purposes. This is not a grab bag of Presidential actions which a majority of the committee thinks is unwise or bad or contrary to our national interest. These are what they must be to be impeachable, acts which would be clear violations of the standards of conduct for any President. Violations which are so grave and are such an abuse of the Presidential trust that the public well-being requires that they be corrected.
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Wayne Owens (D Utah). There are other serious offenses of the President which do not in my opinion raise to the level of impeachability. On the basis of evidence before us I do not believe that the allegations of bribery, for example, in the ITT case or the Milk case, have been sustained. But each one of the abuses contained in Article II is adequate in itself to sustain impeachment in my opinion. These instances of Presidential abuse center around the violation of the guarantee of civil liberties contained in the Bill of Rights, namely, the right to be free from Government interference in his privacy, his home, his letters and his belongings, and his conversations.
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Wayne Owens (D Utah). I would hope that the President is watching this proceeding tonight. I feel that I have grown to know him intimately over the past 8 months. We who are about to vote on this new Article of Impeachment do not wish him the slightest personal harm. We recognize that there is tragedy involved. There is only good will on this committee and I believe that every member acts tonight in accordance with his or her conscience and in pursuit of a constitutional obligation. And I would hope that he would believe that.
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Wayne Owens (D Utah). This Article of Impeachment does not attempt to apply new standards to this President. We apply old standards which everyone knows of through the impeachment process. And impeachment is the only remedy for or the abuses which Article II proposes to correct. Some of them are not criminal abuses and even if they were criminal, the President when sitting is beyond criminal process. Probably the principal reason the Framers included the impeachment power in the Constitution was because they saw that the only remedy against a President for the unlawful enlargement of the executive power and the encroachment upon individual liberties was through this type of stern accountability, the only remedy. By passing these Articles of Impeachment we set an example. It is a fair example because we apply only the most fundamental and basic standards of which any President should be aware.
Watergate Impeachment Hearings House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Wayne Owens (D - Utah).
Wayne Owens (D Utah). And it is an example to future Presidents and to all who hold civil authority in this country that the Congress even to the exercise of its impeachment capability will stand against the abuse of power and the invasion of civil liberties which would undermine our Constitution or the rights and the dignity of the individual. We should not forget that the history of liberty in the world is very short. The history of tyranny is very long and the principal source of oppression has always been the unrestrained power of the state.