Is it okay for an accuser to avoid court? Congress says yes, and is trying to avoid honoring the law that says the accused has a right to confront his accuser. Darryl Issa is the member of Congress trembling behind the congressional curtain.
That might change as early as Monday, when U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton hears arguments from Clemens’s attorneys, who are seeking to force Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to take the witness stand.
Known on Capitol Hill for wielding his own subpoena power, Issa is fighting a subpoena from Clemens’s attorneys, who say that their client has a right to confront his accuser. House lawyers say Issa is too busy to appear in court and is shielded from doing so by a relatively obscure provision of the Constitution.
Legal experts are split in their opinions on how Walton might rule, but they mostly agree that the showdown highlights a central absurdity of the trial: Lawmakers sought the Justice Department investigation into Clemens’s testimony but won’t appear in court.
“Here you have federal prosecutors going out on a limb to help these guys, members of Congress,” said Roscoe Howard, a former U.S. attorney for the District. “It seems inherently unfair when lawmakers refer someone for prosecution and then don’t show up at a public trial to give their perspective or even tell why this case is as important as they say it is.” ...WaPo
What's Issa afraid of? Well, he has plenty to worry about when it comes to The Law. There's a little history there, a little unresolved matter of guilt hanging over Issa's head. A court of law would not be a very comfortable place for Darryl Issa.
Here's a clip from an NPR interview a while back:
NPR: It turns out Congressman Issa himself was accused several times of auto theft. In the early '70s, he and his brother were arrested after police suspected them of stealing a Maserati sports car from the showroom floor of a dealership in Cleveland. Issa says the police mistook his identity. The charges were later dismissed. Another time, Issa was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon. Police found a handgun and a teargas gun, plus ammunition for both, in Issa's glove compartment. These stories first arose when Issa ran for Senate in 1998. An investigative reporter named Lance Williams was looking into the then candidate's bio.
LANCE WILLIAMS: He had been a soldier, and he claimed that he was part of an elite bomb-detecting unit that guarded President Nixon at the 1971 World Series.
NPR: Williams called up the Nixon presidential library and was told that Nixon hadn't gone to any World Series games that year. Then Williams looked into Issa's purportedly stellar career in the Army.
WILLIAMS: The biography that he was providing the press in the context of his campaign was all wrong. He had a bad conduct rating. He was demoted, and a fellow soldier accused him of stealing his car.
NPR: Issa eventually took over that car alarm company. Ryan Lizza, a reporter for The New Yorker Magazine, detailed Issa's early business moves. He had a warehouse full of electronics that, one night in 1982, caught fire. Investigators later found, quote, "suspicious burn patterns," Lizza reported, and found that Issa had done some odd things. A co-worker claimed that before the fire, Issa had put important electronic prototypes in a fireproof box, and that he'd removed the company's computer and financial files from the building. Investigators also found that less than three weeks before the blaze, Issa had increased the company's fire insurance from $100,000 to more than $400,000. ....
RYAN LIZZA: So you add the more than quadrupling of the insurance along with the taking the computer and other - and putting the other stuff in a fire-proof box, and you can see why the - both the arson investigators and the insurance investigators pointed a finger, you know, at Issa after this fire. ...NPR
Don't hold your breath waiting for Issa to take the stand.
Legal experts say Walton could rule either way but is more likely to side with House lawyers. Ruling in favor of Clemens would probably spark an emergency appeal that could further delay the trial. Such a ruling might also lead to other members of Congress being subpoenaed to offer their opinions — a kind of arms race of dueling lawmakers. “It could get messy,” said Stanley Brand, a D.C.-based litigator who is considered an expert on the Speech or Debate clause and who represented Major League Baseball during congressional hearings in 2005. ...WaPo
Which leave Congress with the power to accuse any one of us and not have to defend the accusation.
