WASHINGTON Reuter: The first impeachment trial in half a century opened in the Senate today against a Federal Judge serving a prison sentence for tax evasion but still drawing his 78700 dollar annual government salary.
A special committee started hearing evidence to present to the full Senate which will vote on whether to conduct and remove from the bench Chief Judge Harry Claiborne of Nevada.
Claiborne 69 has been sentenced to two years in prison for evasion of nearly 107000 dollars in taxes in 1979 and 1980.
The last time the Senate tried a Federal Official was in 1936 when it ousted Judge Halsted Ritter on Tax evasion charges.
Twelve years ago the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach then President Richard Nixon in connection with the Watergate scandal but he resigned before the Full House voted on the question of impeachment.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 19, 1986
