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McDoulett to serve as Senate special counsel in impeachment proceedings
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Posted on Mar 02 2022
The Senate has hired former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Joe McDoulett as its special counsel in the impeachment proceedings against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.
McDoulett was present at the Senate’s special session Monday and also during the Senate’s two joint committees’ meeting Friday.
At the Senate special session’s public comment portion Monday, Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) denounced the proposed Impeachment Rules adopted by the Senate Committee of Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations, and the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law and Federal Relations.
Babauta
Babauta said these proposed rules are not congruent with the applicable statutes and a “complete betrayal” of the CNMI Constitution.
She said the fact that a special counsel was specifically hired to draft up these rules and personally participated as the joint committee’s counsel during their meeting Friday instead of the two in-house Senate lawyers is “contradictory to and is a betrayal” of the CNMI Constitution.
She said there is no ambiguity in the Constitution that the Legislative Bureau counsel never be replaced by a private attorney in its role of assisting any Senate committee and private counsel should not be utilized as the official counsel in any official Senate or committee meeting.
Babauta said even during the hearings of the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee that she chairs, they respected the Constitution and used only the House legal counsel and no one else.
“The question I ask is, who is providing direct or indirect funding for special counsel Joe McDoulett? Is it the governor? The mayor of Tinian? Or the Senate leadership?” she asked.
