TWO senators said the Senate leadership should not “deny people their right to a fair impeachment trial.”
Minority bloc Sens. Paul A. Manglona and Edith Deleon Guerrero, in a joint statement on Thursday, accused the Senate leadership of “blocking the people’s right.”
“Despite Senate President [Jude] Hofschneider’s insistence that the House of Representatives failed to timely submit the Impeachment record to the Senate clerk, the Senate minority bloc believes that such statement is simply a ruse to protect Governor Torres, at the expense of his reputation and the people’s right to hold the governor accountable for his impeachable acts,” Deleon Guerrero said.
According to Manglona, “The impeachment rules are not only tainted and fashioned specifically to prevent the conviction of the governor in the event of a trial, but they highlight the extent the Senate leadership will go for their puppet-master.”
“At the end of the day,” Manglona said, “the House of Representatives, a body beholden to, and representative of, the people of the Commonwealth, lawfully impeached Governor Torres, based on insurmountable evidence. Unfortunately for the people of the Commonwealth, these Republican senators have chosen to do the bidding of their master.”
The House leadership has accused the governor of felonies of theft, corruption and neglect of duty. He has denied the allegations.
Paul A. Manglona
Edith Deleon Guerrero
