Defects ID’d in House Impeachment Record

The Senate clerk has identified numerous deficiencies in the official House of Representatives Impeachment Record upon review of the entire record.

Senate clerk Dolores S. Bermudes informed House clerk Linda B. Muna yesterday about the deficiencies that must be corrected.

The House Impeachment Record was transmitted to the Office of the Senate clerk last March 24.

Bermudes said that pursuant to the Senate Impeachment Rule 9(e) (1), if the House Impeachment Record transmitted to the Senate clerk is not in compliance with these rules, the Senate clerk shall promptly notify the House clerk and allow 48 hours for the House clerk to correct the identified deficiencies.

Bermudes said that, pursuant to Senate Impeachment Rule 9(a), the House Impeachment Record shall be consecutively paginated, contain a table of contents identifying the page on which part begins, and be organized in, first, by Article of Impeachment, and second, by chronological order.

She said Senate Impeachment Rule 9(b) further states that the House proceedings are required to be included in the House Impeachment Record and shall be transcribed.

On table of contents, Bermudes said House proceedings on House Resolution 22-14 lacks a Bates stamp table. Bates numbering is typically used in the legal, medical, and business fields.

House Resolution 22-14, which was introduced by Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan), impeached Torres for alleged commission of felonies, corruption, and neglect of duty, in violation of Article 3, Section 19 of the CNMI Constitution.

Bermudes said the Articles of Impeachment are organized in chronological order but the Bates stamp numbers for the Articles are not in chronological order.

The Senate clerk said the House’s Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee hearing does not have a Bates stamp table.

On House proceedings on House Resolution No. 22-14 that lacks a Bates stamp, Bermudes said the documents are not organized in chronological order, and the Bates numbers are not consistent and consecutive because first number is 007836 instead of 000001.

On six Articles of Impeachment, the Senate clerk found that Bates stamp numbers are not organized in chronological and consecutive order.

She said there are identified typographical and spelling errors on the Bates stamp table.

However, Bermudes said, there may be other typographical errors that may not have been identified.

She said some supporting documents, including Travel Authorization numbers on the Bates stamp table and TA numbers supporting documents do not match.

The Senate clerk found that supporting documents are not listed on the Bates stamp table and are not organized in chronological order by dates.

Pertaining to the Office of the Public Auditor report on CNMI Government Travel Policy, Bermudes said this document is a stand-alone document that requires clarification as to which Article(s) of Impeachment it refers to.

She said if this OPA report is to be used for more than one Article of Impeachment, then at a minimum, identify the Articles it references and the relevant page(s) of the report.

On the 21st House Minority Report on Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ expenditures Jan. 6, 2021, Bermudes said this document is a stand-alone document that requires clarification as to which Article(s) it refers to. She said if this report is to be used for more than one Article of Impeachment, then at a minimum, identify the Articles it references and the relevant page(s) of the report.

With respect to House JGO Committee’s hearing that lacks a Bates stamp table, the Senate clerk said the documents are not organized in chronological order, some documents appear to be missing, and the Bates numbers are not consistent and consecutive. She noted that the transcript of the JGO hearing is also a stand-alone document that requires clarification as to which Articles(s) it refers to.

Bermudes said if the transcript of the proceeding is to be used for more than one Article of Impeachment, then at the minimum, identify the Articles it references and the relevant page(s) on the transcript.