At 10:55 this morning, district court Judge G. Thomas Porteous was removed from the federal bench after being convicted on all four articles of impeachment by the Senate. The votes were 96–0 on Article I, 69–27 on Article II, 88–8 on Article III, and 90–6 on Article IV (articles of impeachment available here). Not voting were Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), Chris Dodd (D., Ct.), and Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.).
Interestingly, Article IV concerned Porteous’s attempt to hide his wrongdoing by making false statements to the FBI and the Senate during his nomination process. The evidence on this point seemed overwhelming, yet six senators — Ben Cardin (D., Md.), Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), Al Franken (D., Minn.), Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), Carl Levin (D., Mich.), and Harry Reid (D., Nev.) — voted not guilty on Article IV. Perhaps they think that lying under oath during the nomination process is not a “high crime and misdemeanor.”
Porteous is only the eighth federal judge to be removed from the bench through impeachment in our nation’s history. He is permanently disqualified from ever holding any “office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”