President Being Served With Formal Legal Ethics Complaints

            President Being Served With 
            Formal Legal Ethics Complaints 
            Updated 11:23 a.m. ET (1623 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." 

            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. 
               


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