Senate To Decide Fate Of Impeached Federal Judge

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to begin deciding Tuesday whether to remove a federal judge from Louisiana after the House impeached him on corruption charges.

The House voted unanimously in March to bring four articles of impeachment against G. Thomas Porteous. A two-thirds Senate vote is needed to convict. Porteous could become just the eighth federal judge to be removed from the bench.

A Senate committee has finished the evidence-gathering phase and will present its report to the full Senate.

House prosecutors say Porteous began accepting cash and other favors from people with business before his court, beginning as a state judge.

Defense lawyers have sought to portray his behavior as business as usual in the New Orleans-area legal community.