(22nd House of Representatives) — In his ruling Tuesday afternoon, Judge Pro Tempore Timothy H. Bellas found the House Standing Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations immune from Gov. Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres’s lawsuit. He reaffirmed that the governor is not immune to the Committee’s subpoena authority.
On December 10, 2021, Governor Torres failed to appear in the House Chamber at 10:30 a.m. in a last-ditch effort to evade questions under oath from the JGO Committee about his extravagant expenditures and first-class travel. He again failed to appear on four days later when the Committee offered him an accommodation to evade a contempt charge.
Aware that his failure to appear would amount to contempt, Governor Torres sought relief from the Judicial Branch, claimed the JGO’s subpoena was “invalid and unlawful,” and did not appear in the House Chamber.
Judge Bellas said Governor Torres and his legal team of Joseph Horey, Richard Miller, Ross Garber, and Gilbert Birnbrich “failed to provide any detail regarding the subject matters covered by the subpoena or how they allegedly implicate information protected by executive privilege.”
Further, Judge Bellas ruled, “A plaintiff should not be able to file a bare-bones complaint devoid of factual allegations and subsequently benefit from arguing that any relevant documents submitted by the defendant in support of a motion to dismiss is extrinsic evidence of factual disputes more appropriately reserved for a later stage of the litigation.”
JGO Chairwoman Celina Babauta, D-Saipan, thanked the court and its staff for a timely, clear and just decision that upholds legislative immunity. Babauta said she knew the subpoena fell within the sphere of legitimate legislative activity and claimed Judge Bellas’s decision as a victory for our government’s system of checks and balances.
“The Governor was grasping at straws to avoid testifying under oath and today he left the court empty-handed,” Chairwoman Babauta said. “This ruling confirms our knowledge that nobody is above the law, not even Governor Torres.”
The ruling has further implications, as Judge Pro Tempore Bellas’s decision undermines the assertions made during the Senate Impeachment hearings Monday afternoon by Governor Torres’s counsel, Ross Garber. The ruling also clears the way for the contempt charge filed against Governor Torres by Attorney General Edward Manibusan.
