WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to renew the unfinished impeachment investigation of U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous of Louisiana, who is charged with presiding over a trial in which the lawyers involved had given him money.

Porteous also is accused of filing for bankruptcy under a false name.

The resolution to reauthorize the Judiciary Committee investigation was approved by voice vote.

The last time a federal judge was impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate was 1989.

The House has voted to impeach only 13 judges in U.S. history. Seven were convicted by the Senate and removed from office, four were acquitted and two resigned rather than face trial.

Porteous was appointed by President Clinton.

The Judicial Conference of the United States reported in June that Porteous may deserve impeachment. If the full House impeaches Porteous, the case would advance to a Senate trial. The House only needs a majority to approve impeachment The Senate needs a two-thirds vote to convict.

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The allegations against Porteous were uncovered during the FBI's Operation Wrinkled Robe, an investigation of state judges in Jefferson Parish, where Porteous served until he was appointed a federal judge in 1994.

That 5 1/2-year investigation put court-ordered wiretaps and video cameras in the parish courthouse and brought 14 convictions, including those of two state judges who were sent to federal prison.

In addition to making false statements under oath and taking gifts from attorneys, the charges against Porteous include hiding assets from the bankruptcy estate, leaving gambling losses off the list of debts and getting short-term credit from casinos after the bankruptcy judge ordered him to get approval of the court before taking on any debt.

The probe also uncovered evidence that Porteous rejected a request to step down from a case without revealing that he had a history of financial relationships with at least one attorney involved and leaving lawyers gifts off financial disclosure statements from 1994-2000.

Porteous stepped aside from all civil cases involving the federal government and all criminal cases in 2003, after a relative of bail bondsman Louis Marcotte said the bondsman _ sent to prison for racketeering _ had paid for Porteous' car repairs and arranged another favor.

He was removed from bankruptcy cases after the 5th Circuit's judicial council's report.