October 15, 2007

Larry Craig Appeals Decision On Guilty Plea

UPDATED.

Despite his ongoing legal troubles and calls for his resignation by members of his own party, Sen. Larry Craig refuses to go quietly. The Idaho Republican filed a motion with the Minnesota Court of Appeals today asking the judge to overrule a lower court's decision refusing to allow Craig to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from a sex sting operation in a Minneapolis airport bathroom.

"From the outset Senator Craig has maintained that he is innocent of any illegal conduct at the Minneapolis airport. Senator Craig has a right to appeal and we believe that it was a manifest injustice not to allow Senator Craig to withdraw his guilty plea entered in August," said Billy Martin, Craig's high-powered attorney. "Like every other citizen, Senator Craig has the constitutional right to make every effort to clear his name."

Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter ruled two weeks ago that Craig "knew what he was saying, reading and signing," when he agreed to plead guilty to those charges in June and therefore should not be able to withdraw the plea now.

The motion does not detail the grounds for Craig's appeal. In an interview with a Boise TV station on Sunday, Craig said, "It is my right to do what I'm doing. I've already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed. I'm not running for re-election. I'm no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights." He reiterated that he does not intend to resign his Senate seat and will complete the last year of his current term.

Craig also had harsh words for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over the weekend. He told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview taped Sunday that the Republican presidential candidate "threw [Craig] under the campaign bus" when his arrest was initially made public in August. "He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again," Craig told Lauer. He had served as the Senate liaison for the Romney campaign before resigning in light of the scandal. MSNBC has more details on the interview, which will air tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, the Senate Ethics Committee is investigating Craig's case. MSNBC has a handy guide on how the committee's inquiry will proceed.

Legal experts say that Craig's chances of succeeding in his appeals case are slim. But the extended proceedings could buy him some time. It will likely be well into 2008 before the court rules on the case, and the few Republican senators who have backed Craig have urged their colleagues not to judge him until the legal process has reached a conclusion.

In the meantime, those less sympathetic to Craig's plight are reportedly planning to pull out all the stops to keep the senator from serving out the rest of his term. The New Republic (subscription) has cheekily proposed several new strategies disgruntled Republicans may want to try to get Craig to leave.

Posted at 4:15 PM
Posted to: Larry Craig, Senate
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