‘Respect Senate’s role to conduct impeachment hearing’

Saying the Senate has yet to come up with its Rules of Impeachment, Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) has returned to the House of Representatives the partial record of impeachment proceedings that Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) had delivered to his office.

In his letter to House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) Monday, Hofschneider said that, just as the Senate has never intruded on the House’s role as the initiator of impeachment proceedings or the manner in which the House conducted its proceedings, it is incumbent upon the House to respect the Senate’s role to conduct a hearing on impeachment under rules the Senate establishes.

Hofschneider

Hofschneider disclosed that the Senate has received a letter dated Feb. 4, 2022, from Babauta that demands that the Senate accept the House’s partial record of impeachment proceedings. He said Babauta also demands that the Senate accept the House’s assignment of impeachment managers and that he conceals the contents of the partial record from the members of the Senate.

Babauta chairs the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee that had investigated Gov. Ralph DLG Torres

Hofschneider said that Babauta’s letter has the accompanying flash drive and compact discs containing the partial record of the House impeachment proceedings.

Hofschneider said the Senate is moving at all deliberate speed toward the establishment of Rules of Impeachment and that until such time as those rules are finalized, it would be premature to accept a partial record from the House.

He said it is also premature to accept the designation of House Impeachment managers.

Not only is it premature, Hofschneider said, but it is also inappropriate for the House to dictate to the Senate the number and identity of what Babauta has termed “Impeachment Managers.”

“Because the Senate cannot receive these records as a partial record or even as the whole of the House Impeachment Record, there is no reason for me to address whether the request to conceal those records is an appropriate request from the chairwoman,” Hofschneider added.

He said that Babauta states in her letter that the House record contains documents Bates-stamped 00001 through 02639. However, the president said, the referenced enclosure purports to contain documents Bates-stamped 0001 through 05731.

Hofschneider said that, of the CDs listed in the letter, item 112(h) indicates “Mr. Robert A. Guerrero, DPS Commissioner-Dec. 10, 2021.”

However, he said, of the CDs received, none of which were labeled as specified under item 112(h), but there is one CD labeled as “Dec. 10, 2021. JGO Ross Garber. DPS COM.”

The president said it is unclear which materials should be considered part of the “partial record.”

Hofschneider said perhaps the House will be able to better prepare the Impeachment Record when the Rules for the format of such materials are clearly established.

He said the Senate has already taken upon itself the task for producing the rules and has done so on an extremely shortened time-table. He said that after the publication of those rules, the House will have clear guidance as to how such materials should be provided.

“In the same spirit of transparency and good faith, the Senate has undertaken the task of drafting and promulgating the Rules of Impeachment in a very short timeframe,” the president said.

He said the Rules of Impeachment for the conduct of an impeachment hearing is a duty designated by the CNMI Constitution to the Senate. Hofschneider said the Senate has and will continue to approach this duty deliberately.

He said the submission of an incomplete record, in the absence of the rules of how the record is to be produced, will not change how the Senate approaches its duty.

The president emphasized that it is the duty of the Senate, and the Senate alone, to determine the rules by which the impeachment will be conducted, to include the format of the record to be provided and schedule for the appointment of prosecutors from the House.

With regard to the House’s submission of “Impeachment Managers,” it is premature for the Senate to consider any designation of “Impeachment Managers” until such time as the

Rules of Impeachment are adopted.

Hofschneider has tasked the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations and the Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law and Federal Relations to come up with the Rules of Impeachment by Feb. 17, 2022. He said these two committees are committed to the idea of formulating rules that respect the CNMI Constitution and provide a fair and impartial process for all the parties.

With regard to Babauta’s request that “the Senate hold the record in camera,” Hofschneider said he understands from the context of the request she is requesting that he, as the Senate president, withhold these materials from the rest of the Senate.

Hofschneider said that, as Babauta mentioned in her letter, the documents the House has provided do not yet constitute the entire record of the House, so he does not see any need to present these documents to the Senate as the Record of Impeachment.

He said just as it would be premature for the Senate to take up any consideration of proposed “Impeachment Managers,” it is also premature to present these documents as the House Record of Impeachment.

The president said the rules will provide notice to the senators, the House, Torres, and the entire Commonwealth how the Senate will conduct this hearing.

House Resolution 22-14, which was introduced by Babauta, impeached Torres for alleged commission of felonies, corruption, and neglect of duty.

Torres has repeatedly stated that he has not done anything illegal.