This may explain alot

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President Being Served With Formal Legal Ethics Complaints Updated 5:15 p.m. ET (2215 GMT) February 10, 2000 President Clinton is being served with formal legal ethics complaints alleging he committed violations including "lying, deceit, perjury, fraud, dishonesty (and) untrustworthiness," Fox News has learned.

Larry Downing/Reuters The complaint seeks to have the president disbarred immediately

It is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president has been made the subject of formal professional ethics-violations and brought up on a complaint before a bar.

Sources said the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct sent the complaint to the White House Wednesday by certified mail  which means it could arrive as early as Thursday. The Southeastern Legal Foundation  the conservative public-interest law firm that raised the allegations  has also sent a complaint.

The complaint stems from allegations that Clinton lied under oath and obstructed justice in his appearance in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright cited the president for contempt for those actions last April.

President Clinton is a member of the Arkansas State Bar; the complaint seeks to have him disbarred immediately. The complaint states that the referral made by the Office of Independent Counsel to the House of Representatives during last year's impeachment proceedings shows, "His conduct involves lying, deceit, perjury, fraud, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, obstruction of justice, subornation of perjury, tampering with witnesses and other forms of misconduct inimical to and destructive of the administration of justice. As a man and as a lawyer, Mr. Clinton is utterly without shame and utterly without honor."

David Luban, a professor at the Georgetown Law Center, said how the president will be judged and punished by the panel depends on many factors, especially since the "lie was immaterial to the outcome of the Paula Jones case, and it was about something personal" that most people would lie to conceal.

"On the twin assumptions that he lied and that Arkansas uses the ABA rules  the disciplinary panel should find that he violated at least 2 and possibly 5 rules."

Luban said the president will deny he broke any of these rules and possibly the judge's (in the Jones case) citation for contempt precludes him from making a denial.

"As I understand the procedure, he is entitled to an independent adjudication of the facts by the disciplinary board. If he loses, the board doesn't have to disbar him. Discipline can range from a private reprimand, through a public reprimand, through temporary suspension up to disbarment as a maximum penalty."

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart originally told reporters he didn't know anything about the complaint. Later pressed on the administration's feelings "generally" on the matter, Lockhart dismissed it. "If I tried to keep track of everyone with a gripe, I'd be spending all my time on it."

The complaint also states: "His conduct brings great discredit and great disgrace to the Arkansas legal profession. His status as a member of our Bar is an intolerable affront to the rule of law. Mr. Clinton should therefore be permanently disbarred."

According to Arkansas rules, President Clinton has 30 days from receipt of the complaint to respond. In the past, normal complaints for disbarment in Arkansas have taken from two to six months from the time a complaint has been served to a possible disbarment, which means Clinton could possibly be disbarred while still in office.

Former President Richard Nixon was served with a similar complaint after he left office and was ultimately disbarred in New York

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 10, 2000

Answers

Since this sleazy Clinton character, called the President, will probably never practice law again anywhere, much less in Arkansas, my guess is that he ignores the whole thing, and pretends it never happened. He's good at that!

-- Birdlady (Birdlady@nest.home), February 10, 2000.

About time. He deserves it, and he has nobody to blame but his sorry self.

-- Marie (pray4peace@compuserve.com), February 10, 2000.

Folks,

Let's get off the President's case. He has got less than a year to go and faces a mess of civil problems.

It's time to be looking forward to the next President...and getting on with our lives!

-- Z (Z@Z.Z), February 10, 2000.

Z, you say "Let's get off the president's case"?

The man has never gotten what he so richly deserves. I look forward to the day when he is in a place surrounded exclusively with people exactly like himself. Can you think of a better description of hell? Oh yes, I thought of one. Being married to Hellary.

He is guilty of treason.

-- (formerly@nowhere.zzz), February 11, 2000.

Well, he does have only himself to blame...her married her, after all! About the legal mess, we can only let the wheels of the disciplinary process grind their methodical way toward resolution. But if the Bar does not disbar him, that organization will also be tarred with allowing such conduct by its members...and will lose both stature and credibility...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 11, 2000.

F^CK THE BASTARD!!!!

He's a TRAITOROUS RAPIST who has been IMPEACHED and should be remembered throughout history as the guy who wacked off into the White House sinks.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), February 11, 2000.

Z, you said,

"Let's get off the President's case. He has got less than a year to go and faces a mess of civil problems.

It's time to be looking forward to the next President...and getting on with our lives!"

Please tell me this was a drunken jest. We will NEVER be free from the additional threats to the country from Clinton selling missile guidance technology to China. Also, now PERJURY in a court of law is NOT SUFFICIENT to remove a President from office thanks to your boy. I could go on, but the drift should be obvious.

Down rant, DOWN I say,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), February 11, 2000.

---gee, hope the poor messenger person delivering the ethics complaints used a handtruck for the delivery--hate to see the poor guy get a hernia or something...

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 11, 2000.