WASHINGTON -- Michael 'Ozzie' Myers, a former Philadelphia dockworker who became the first congressman expelled by his House colleagues in nearly 120 years, is fighting his ouster in the federal courts.
Charging that he was entrapped by the FBI in its controversial Abscam operations, Myers battled his expulsion to the final vote Thursday.
But House members, many of whom had seen FBI videotapes showing the Pennsylvania Democrat seeking and taking funds from undercover agents, voted 376-30 to expel him.
Myers promptly sent lawyers to file suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, charging his expulsion was unconstitutional. House Speaker Thomas O'Neill, House Clerk Edmund Henshaw and three other House officials were named as defendants.
In a separate action, Myers' lawyers filed papers in the Supreme Court asking it to review whether the executive branch exceeded its authority in the FBI's Abscam operation.
Myers, 37, a two-term congressman, is the fourth person in history to be expelled from the House. The three others were ousted on treason charges in 1861 for joining the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Seventeen unsuccessful attempts have been made to expel members, the last one almost 60 years ago.
Myers was convicted by a federal jury in August for accepting a bribe from undercover agents he thought were the business associates of an Arab sheik. He has not yet been sentenced.
After the expulsion vote, Myers told reporters: 'I was not given a fair trial (in the House).' He said the House had 'violated its own rules' and denied him due process. 'I want this Abscam matter completely aired out.'
Myers ceased to become a member of Congress and left its payroll as soon as O'Neill announced the vote, authorized the clerk to take over Myers' office, and ordered that the governor of Pennsylvania be informed of the action.
'I am leaving Washington and going back to America,' Myers said as he stepped into a Mercedes-Benz and was driven away.
Myers is up for re-election Nov. 4. If he wins, the House would have to seat him, but could move to expel him again.
'I know what it feels like now to sit on Death Row. In a way, I'm waiting for execution,' Myers said shortly before the vote.
Speaking in his own defense, Myers noted he has not been sentenced yet and asked his colleagues not to join 'a lynching mob, because that is exactly what I think this is.'
As for the tapes, he said, 'I was set up from the word go.'
In Philadelphia, Mayor William Green said, 'The expulsion of Ozzie Myers by the Congress was an expression of the Congress' disappointment in his conduct, a disappointment I share.'
And David Glancy, head of the Democratic City Committee in Philadelphia, said, 'I think the House's action was proper,' adding he had been trying to persuade Myers for three or four weeks not to seek re-election.
Robert Burke, Myers' Republican opponent in the November election, said the House made 'the correct decision.' He predicted that Myers would lose if he stays in the race because 'all the publicity he gets is bad publicity, and the ... bad publicity he gets is going to be helpful to me.'
Three other House members implicated in the Abscam investigations voted to keep Myers in the House.
Reps. Richard Kelly, R-Fla., Raymond Lederer, D-Pa., and John Murphy, D-N.Y. _ all defendants in Abscam cases _ voted against expulsion.
Two other House members implicated in the Abscam scandal _ Reps. John Jenrette, D-S.C., and Frank Thompson, D-N.J. _ did not vote. Jenrette is on trial as an Abscam defendant in Washington and said he thought the vote on Myers should have been delayed until all the Abscam trials were complete.
But Jenrette said, 'I would probably have voted for expulsion for the political ease of it.'
Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., who was implicated in published accounts of the Abscam cases but has not been indicted, voted to expel Myers.