IF his attorney recommends it, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said he will appear before the Senate during his impeachment trial.
“Whatever my attorney recommends…I will follow through — I will do it,” the governor said on Tuesday.
The governor’s lawyer in the Senate impeachment trial is Anthony H. Aguon who recently filed a motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment saying they are constitutionally defective. According to Aguon, the House of Representatives acted in excess of its constitutional mandate.
The governor said he is just waiting for the Senate impeachment trial to start, “and I will go from there.”
He reiterated that he did nothing wrong.
One case in point, he said, is the testimony of Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Gary Camacho who, under oath, testified that the governor did not take any money, and that the accusations against him about utility bills were a matter of accounting errors which were later fixed.
These details, Torres said, were not mentioned in the articles of impeachment.
As for his off-island travels, he said Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios signed his travel authorizations — a fact that was also not included in House Resolution 22-14 which called for his impeachment.
The governor said he complied with the travel request process, and at times, some of his requests were denied.
“It was not me that signed [the travel authorizations], and it was not me that reimbursed myself. I turned it [over] the right way and it was approached the right way. Yet I am being charged,” the governor said, referring to the articles of impeachment.
Now that the articles of impeachment are with the senators, the governor said, “I now leave that to the Senate.”
Ralph DLG Torres
