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 (POR'-tee-us). 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.