SENATOR Paul A. Manglona on Thursday accused Senate special legal counsel Joe McDoulett and the governor’s personal legal counsel, Viola Alepuyo, of ex parte communications.
In a letter to the presiding officers of the 22nd CNMI Legislature, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez and Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider, Manglona requested an immediate investigation into what appears to be “an egregious breach of ethical conduct that may have broken multiple criminal statutes, rules of the Senate and the American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct.”
Manglona provided both presiding officers with a document titled “Senate Impeachment Rules V6.1 Joey Edits,” which shows a number of edits made by Alepuyo to the Senate Impeachment Rules at 11:21 and 11:22 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022.
McDoulett then made edits on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, Manglona said.
“This is a clear indication that the Governor’s personal counsel either drafted the Senate rules on behalf of Governor Torres or at the very least played a role in drafting, reviewing, and editing the rules which were eventually adopted by the Senate Impeachment Committee and the Senate body as a whole on March 3, 2022,” Manglona, said.
“Mr. President and Mr. Speaker, it would be improper for the Senate’s Special Counsel and the Governor’s personal counsel to work together to draft, review, and edit the Senate’s impeachment rules. If this is indeed what happened, it would explain why the rules adopted by the Senate are weighed heavily in favor of the Governor.”
Manglona added, “It would be negligent and a betrayal of public trust on our part if we do not investigate even the slightest appearance of impropriety given the contentious nature of the impeachment process. This demands your immediate action. At the very least, the people deserve to know who authorized the Senate special counsel to work with the Governor’s personal counsel.”
He requested that the Senate’s “constitutionally recognized Senate legal counsel” identify which laws and rules were broken and provide the complete list of all instances when the governor’s personal legal counsel and the Senate’s special counsel communicated and collaborated on the impeachment proceedings.
Antonette Villagomez is Senate senior legal counsel and Jose Bermudes is Senate legal counsel.
In a previous Senate session, Senate President Hofschneider stated that McDoulett was privately retained by his office to act as special counsel for the impeachment proceedings and the drafting of the Senate impeachment rules.
Paul A. Manglona
