Sen. Bob Packwood today faced a Republican colleague's call for his resignation and an expanded Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether he altered tape recordings of his diaries.
Senate lawyers told U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Jackson on Thursday that the Oregon Republican, a senator for 25 years, altered the diary tapes as he anticipated an Ethics Committee subpoena for the material.Jackson ordered the diary materials taken into protective custody, and they arrived Thursday afternoon at the courthouse.
Senate Legal Counsel Michael Davidson said in court that the Ethics Committee now is examining "whether there was any perjury or obstruction" as a result of the alleged alterations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, a Kansas Republican, urged him to step down.
"I think the time has come that Senator Packwood should resign," Kassebaum said Thursday in her Wichita office. "I guess I feel that he's reached a point where this is so all-consuming now, and certainly questionable, that I just don't feel that he can effectively serve Oregon in the Senate."
Two other senators, Democrats Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, have urged Packwood to quit.
The Ethics Committee has been investigating Packwood over allegations of sexual misconduct and intimidation of witnesses. The panel subpoenaed the diaries to consider extending the inquiry to include a lobbyist's job offer to the senator's wife.
Jackson is unlikely to rule this month because Packwood lawyer Jacob Stein has asked for time to file additional arguments opposing the subpoena.
Stein told Jackson the subpoena is so broad it amounted to a general search warrant in violation of Packwood's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches. The committee is seeking the right, Stein said, to "rummage at will through Senator Packwood's personal diaries in search of possible misconduct."