Magofna refuses to take part in ‘illegality’ of Senate’s appointment

Rep. Corina Magofna (D-Saipan) claims that the Senate’s appointment for her to serve as the House impeachment prosecutor was illegal and she will not participate in its alleged illegality.

According to Magofna, she wanted to clarify that the reason she declined to serve as the House impeachment prosecutor, which became one of the reasons there are no prosecutors at all in the impeachment proceedings against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, was because it was allegedly unconstitutional for Senate President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) to “overreach” into the House and dictate to House Speaker Edmund Villagomez who the prosecutors should be.

“I didn’t decline the appointment of prosecutor because it was the easy way out or because I lacked the confidence to present the evidence. I declined the Senate president’s appointment because it was ‘unconstitutional’ for the Senate president to infringe into the House and dictate who the prosecutors should be, plain and simple. For the Senate president to tell the House who should bring in the evidence and who should present its case—this is very disrespectful, unprofessional, and most importantly, unconstitutional,” she said.

Magofna

Because of this, Magofna said, she would not accept the Senate president’s appointment.

“I will not take part in the illegality of the Senate’s appointment. We both took an oath to uphold the Commonwealth’s Constitution. So for the record, I am part of the House team of impeachment prosecutors. The House and the House alone should be able to pick who presents the record and presents the evidence. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding,” Magofna said.

Also, Magofna described as “untrue” the Senate president’s statement that she failed to timely file an appearance resulting in the Senate president prohibiting her from participating in the impeachment proceedings. She explained that she, and four other House representatives, filed a timely notice to appear as a team of prosecutors.

“On March 30 at approximately 2:29pm I filed my notice to appear. The [Senate president’s] office received this notice. I would like to clear the record. I did file and submit my response to the Senate clerk on the day it was due, at least two hours before the deadline and I have a copy of the document to prove it. I don’t appreciate Hofschneider telling the public that I ‘failed to timely file an appearance’ because it’s simply not true. In fact, the House of Representatives filed a timely notice to appear with our team of House impeachment prosecutors and the team I’m referring are Reps. BJ Attao, Celina Babauta, Leila Staffler, Donald Manglona and myself,” Magofna stated.

According to a previous memorandum issued by the Senate president, he explained that the House of Representatives was prohibited from participating and prosecuting in the hearing for Torres’ motion to dismiss the Articles of Impeachment because Magofna failed to timely file an appearance in the matter pursuant to Senate Impeachment Rule 7(a)(2). 

Also, the House clerk failed to submit the House impeachment record in support of the Articles of Impeachment in compliance with Senate Impeachment Rule 9(e).