House investigators summoned Washington lawyer William A. Borders to appear Wednesday as a crucial witness in impeachment proceedings against federal Judge Alcee L. Hastings, but there was no assurance that Borders would break his long silence and testify against his old friend.
The House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice also was expected to allow Hastings' lawyers to interrogate John Doar, chief counsel for the special panel of appellate court judges who have accused Hastings of judicial misconduct worthy of impeachment.Hastings was acquitted in 1983 of conspiring with Borders to solicit a $150,000 bribe from two convicted racketeers in exchange for a promise of lenient sentences.
Borders was convicted at a separate trial in 1982 of arranging the bribe from racketeers Frank and Tom Romano, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Borders refused to testify at both his own and Hastings' trials.
He also refused to testify before a five-judge investigative panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.