‘Senators, we ask you to do what is right for the people’

Editor’s Note: Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan), delivered the following remarks regarding the Senate Impeachment Rules during the public comment section of the Senate session Thursday, March 3, 2022.

Hafa adai, tirow, honorable members of the Senate. My name is Leila Fleming Staffler and I am here to provide public comments on the Senate Communication 22-97 and 22-99 with respect to the Senate Impeachment Rules. I am here in my official capacity as a Precinct 5 representative in the 22nd House of Representatives.

I didn’t know this, but I have come to learn that a “special counsel” virtually always means prosecutor. As defined by Black’s law dictionary: ‘A special counsel is the name given to the attorney who is employed to assist a state or federal attorney general in a prosecution case. A prosecutor, in practice prosecutes, brings legal action against another for a crime, in the name of the government.

Yet, Mr. McDoulett’s role appears to have changed the definition of special counsel here in the Marianas. What is his role? Was it solely to craft these rules? Rules, which the current Senate counsel is more than capable to have drafted. Rules that even minority members of this body have not had input in.

Is his role to preside over every impeachment meeting? Is he acting as a pro-se chairman to facilitate these hearings himself? Is counsel McDoulett going to be advising [the] Senate president too? How is Mr. McDoulett considered a “special counsel” if they are not bringing legal action against another for a crime in the name of the government?

When I read the rules, I won’t lie, I was shocked at the lengthy procedure that, at any point even prior to the actual impeachment trial proceedings, could disqualify the copious amounts of evidence that show clear and repetitive actions of felonies, corruption and neglect of duty by Gov. Torres over several years. Without the evidence to back it up, the impeachment process is incomplete.

And to think these rules were drafted by the “special counsel.” Black’s dictionary will have to add a new line to this definition: The name given to attorneys in the Marianas who protect the governor from being impeached through procedural detail.

One of those details hampers is in Rule 7 Appointment of Impeachment Prosecutor. The House speaker who authorized impeachment inquiry shall serve as the impeachment prosecutor. We are hampered by these rules because they bar us from choosing our own players to be on the impeachment prosecution team. It bars us from hiring our own special counsel (who would actually be a special counsel in the name of the law). Instead, we must learn to be lawyers in a month or less.

Oh wait, we don’t have to learn to be lawyers in a month, just the speaker. The speaker who has been more than fair over the course of these proceedings. He has always taken neutral ground, allowing for the process to take its course. He has not stacked the deck. He has been respectful of the minority by being neutral.

This rule specifically has a chilling effect for all future speakers whose House leadership may have clear and convincing evidence to support an impeachment, whether it is for a governor or other sitting official. Forcing the speaker to carry 100% of the burden to prove the wrongdoing will make anyone think twice about even “authorizing” the impeachment process.

The impeached official has no such restriction. They can have as many counsels as they want, it appears. They have hired barrage of lawyers who are trying to build a wall of protection around this governor. Protection from who? The people want to know.

Doing what is right is never easy, but it is always the right thing to do. Senators, we ask you to do what is right for the people. Be fair. These rules, they are not fair. They skew in favor of this impeached governor. Senators, we ask you to do what is right for the people. Be fair.

LEILA HAVEIA C. STAFFLER (Special to the Saipan Tribune)
Leila Haveia Fleming C. Staffler is a member of the House of Representatives of the 22nd Legislature, representing Precinct 5.