United States v. Harry Eugene Claiborne

This interlocutory appeal raises anew the issue whether the United States Constitution immunizes a sitting federal judge from criminal prosecution prior to his removal from office by the impeachment process. Appellant, Harry Eugene Claiborne, is a United States Judge for the District of Nevada. He was appointed to the bench in August, 1978. On December 8, 1983, a seven count indictment was returned against Claiborne. Count I of the indictment alleged that Claiborne solicited and received $30,000.00 from Joseph Conforte, a Las Vegas brothel owner, in return for being influenced in the performance of official acts— 1. e., decisions regarding motions in a pending case. ( 18 U.S.C. § 201 (c)). Count II alleged that Claiborne caused an interstate telephone conversation to be made in furtherance of a scheme to defraud Conforte. ( 18 U.S.C. § 1343 ). The scheme to defraud allegedly involved Claiborne’s accepting $55,000.00 from Conforte in return for promising to secure the reversal of Con-forte’s criminal tax evasion conviction by bribing one or more judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Claiborne’s trial is scheduled to begin on March 12, 1984. On January 3, 1984, Claiborne…