PUBLIC Defender Douglas W. Hartig on Wednesday informed the Senate that he is joining a group of 16 private attorneys in opposing and providing an alternative to House Bill 23-22, which seeks subpoena power for the Office of the Attorney General.
In his letter to Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero and the chair of the Senate Judiciary, Government and Law Committee, Sen. Celina R. Babauta, the public defender reiterated that his office has several serious concerns about the bill.
He said the subpoenas by agencies allowed in the states are done for the purpose of very limited and narrowly tailored investigations or for a grand jury. Such is the case with the Office of the Public Auditor, he added.
He said attorney Robert T. Torres is correct to point out that a grand jury provides a check on the “unbridled power of an administration.”
Torres is among the local lawyers who are opposed to H.B. 23-22, and have recommended the establishment of a CNMI grand jury as an alternative.
Every state and Guam has a grand jury, Hartig added. Without it “all residents are subject to an unprotected invasion of privacy and can be ordered to appear at the attorney general’s office to be interrogated about any matter, criminal or otherwise, about themselves or anyone, and produce anything the attorney general may want to look at,” Hartig said.
“A free society is dependent on the separation of powers, and checks and balances. As to subpoenas, it is the court which is a check on the executive branch (attorney general) as well as providing a separate source of authority. This bill moves us closer to authoritarianism, not away from it and should be opposed by all who want freedom,” Hartig said.
