Impeachment Costs Top $1.2M

The price tag for the five-month congressional impeachment proceedings, ending in President Clinton's acquittal, was more than $1.2 million, expense records show. The House paid its top impeachment investigators as much as $20,000 a month.

In addition, chief Republican investigator David Schippers and Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell requested and were given special consultant status that allowed them to bypass congressional restrictions on outside income and continue work at their private law firms.

Schippers, whose private practice is in Chicago, was paid at the rate of $20,000 a month during the height of the investigation, according to House Judiciary Committee records. Lowell, a Washington lawyer, was paid at a monthly rate of $18,000, according to expense records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Adjusted to annual salary, both men were being paid at a rate of more than $200,000 per year.

In contrast, staff lawyers for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr earn between $66,563 and $118,400 annually. The independent counsel's deputies must also sever ties with their private law firms -- a prohibition that does not apply to Starr.

House members and senators earn $136,700 a year.

According to Judiciary Committee records, the panel paid for a portion of its investigation with $1.2 million from a special fund, which covered compensation for investigators, equipment, travel, communications, printing and other expenses solely related to impeachment.

The actual cost to taxpayers was much higher, but can't be readily calculated because much of the staff work in the House, Senate and White House was performed by permanent, salaried employees who would be paid regardless of their assignments.

The impeachment inquiry began Sept. 9 when Starr delivered a report to the House. In December, the House impeached Mr. Clinton on two articles alleging perjury and obstruction of justice and on Feb. 12 the Senate acquitted him on both charges.

Schippers and Lowell led the House Judiciary Committee investigation of Clinton's alleged offenses, and Schippers then assisted the 13 House GOP lawmakers named to prosecute the president at the Senate trial.

While Democrats have attacked the entire inquiry as an unnecessary expense, committee chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said that both Schippers and Lowell were worth the money because of "their work and sacrifices" in a town where top private lawyers frequently earn upwards of $400 an hour.

As for the overall cost, Hyde said, "I think that vindicating the Constitution is always worth it. I don't think there were any extravagances at all."

Impeachment-related expenses ranged from communications equipment to numerous trips by investigators. Most of the travel destinations were unspecified in the expense records.

A Xerox copier cost $14,440, a laser printer was $2,863, a shredder cost $2,399 and television was $4,354.

The president's private lawyers on the impeachment case, ed by David Kendall of Washington, were paid from a private legal defense fund created in early 1998 to help Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with their lawyer bills.