Wrote article of impeachment against Nixon
Former Sen. Paul Sarbanes, who represented Maryland for 30 years in the Senate as a leader of financial regulatory reform and, as a congressman, drafted the first article of impeachment against Republican President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, has died at age 87.
Sarbanes, who retired from the Senate in 2006 and served six years as a U. S. representative, was a Democrat known for avoiding the spotlight while quietly pursuing liberal goals.
Rep. John Sarbanes, the late senator’s son, said his father died peacefully Sunday night in Baltimore.
“Our family is grateful to know that we have the support of Marylanders who meant so much to him and whom he was honored to serve,” he said in a statement.
The statement did not reveal the cause of death.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said all Americans lost “a leader and public servant of dignity and principle” who had worked tirelessly over 40 years to bring “integrity, transparency and oversight to Washington.”
“In Congress, Paul Sarbanes was respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle for his humility, tenacity and keen intellect,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Sarbanes entered politics in 1966 with a successful run for Maryland’s House of Delegates before reaching Congress four year later.
As a House member, Sarbanes was chosen by fellow Democrats to introduce an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice against Nixon. Sarbanes later said there was no joy in taking steps to bring down a president, but “somebody had to do it.” Nixon resigned before the impeachment proceedings ended.
Known for his cerebral and self- effacing manner, Sarbanes focused on complex and seemingly humdrum economic issues. That background helped him drive the legislation that became the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002, designed to make corporate executives more accountable. Rep. Michael Oxley ( R- Ohio) coauthored the bill with Sarbanes.
The law was inspired partly by the 2001 bankruptcy f iling of Houstonbased Enron Corp. The energy company had become an investor favorite based on amazing f inancial results that turned out to have been
based on accounting fraud. Sarbanes contended that accounting firms and corporations could not be trusted to police themselves.
“We are facing a crisis of confidence that is eroding the public’s trust in our markets and poses a real threat to our economic health,” Sarbanes said in 2002 while advocating for the legislation.
The law required companies to report regularly on the strength of their internal f inancial controls and f ix any problems. It also mandated more financial disclosure and raised the criminal penalties for securities fraud.
After President George W. Bush signed the bill in July 2002, Sarbanes questioned whether broad discretion given to the Securities and Exchange commissioner to implement many of its provisions would produce meaningful enforcement.
“I’d like for the jury to sort of watch,” Sarbanes said.
In 2010, the Supreme Court struck down part of Sarbanes- Oxley. The justices voted 5- 4 that the law violated the Constitution’s separation- of- powers mandate. The court said the president, or others appointed by him, must be able to remove members of a board created by the legislation to tighten oversight of internal corporate controls and outside auditors.
Sarbanes was known as an advocate for the Chesapeake Bay, and environmental groups praised him as a champion of the nation’s largest estuary.
The son of Greek immigrants, Sarbanes was a native of Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He attended Princeton University after graduating from public schools. He was a Rhodes scholar at England’s Oxford University and earned a law degree at Harvard University in 1960.
He won his Senate seat in 1976.