After delaying its sexual misconduct investigation while Sen. Bob Packwood flirted with resignation, the Senate Ethics Committee is prepared to ask a judge this week to enforce its subpoena for the lawmaker's diaries.
"The expectation is this is going to be filed Monday," a Senate source said late Saturday.Although a Senate lawyer was standing by at the courthouse Friday, the papers were not filed because Packwood was considering resigning.
The ethics committee has been investigating allegations that Packwood made unwelcome sexual advances to more than two dozen women, but Chairman Richard Bryan has said the diaries may also contain evidence of criminality.
If the committee proceeds, Packwood would face two subpoenas for his diaries. Clinton administration sources disclosed that the Oregon Republican received a Justice Department subpoena Friday as part of a criminal investigation.
Senate sources said Packwood had considered quitting because that would end the probe of the ethics committee, which would lose jurisdiction once the senator left. That would have been a way to avoid giving up the diaries, and Packwoood could even have legally destroyed them if he wished.
But when the Justice Department subpoenaed the writings, sources said, Packwood lost the chance to destroy the diaries because it would be obstruction of justice to do so.
"Packwood's legal problems expanded exponentially" by not resigning in the "window of time" before the Justice Department issued its subpoena, said one Senate source, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
A senator, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said Packwood had complained earlier this week that the ethics committee wouldn't listen to his arguments to avoid turning over the diaries.
Senate sources said the committee's refusal to back down may have prompted Packwood's thoughts of resigning. The full Senate voted several weeks ago to back enforcement of the subpoena.
Clinton administration sources said Friday the Justice Department investigation focuses on whether Packwood's defense of Mitsubishi Electric Co. in the Senate, against unfair trade practice charges, was linked to a job offer to his wife from a company lobbyist.
Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole told reporters Saturday, "As far as I know, he's not going to resign, period."
Dole also said he didn't think Packwood should quit, saying, "Any of us, whether Democrats or Republicans, are entitled to our day in court."