After almost a year of talk about a possible impeachment of Gov. Robert Bentley, the House Judiciary Committee announced a tentative impeachment schedule Tuesday, which would set a vote by the full House in early May.
The tentative schedule includes committee hearings to hear a report on a private investigation by the committee’s Special Counsel Jack Sharman, who was given the go-ahead earlier this month to continue an investigation of Bentley.
Sharman’s written report on his investigation of Bentley would be delivered to the committee, the Governor’s Office and made public by 5 p.m. on April 7. From April 10–13, the committee would hold hearings to allow the special counsel to call witnesses. On May 1, the committee would likely vote whether to send a report to the full House for a vote.
By May 9, the House could consider the committee’s report. At that point, the House could vote to impeach the governor. If he is impeached in the House, he would immediately be suspended from office until the Senate holds a trial to determine his guilt. If he is found not guilty, he would be reinstated as governor.
Both Sharman and Bentley’s attorney, Ross Garber, emphasized that the tentative schedule is just that: tentative.
“There are a number of variables, internal and external, that could have an impact on this schedule,” Sharman wrote in his letter to the Governor’s Office on March 23. “In addition, you have indicated that the Office of the Governor, Governor Bentley personally, or both, may file a lawsuit. Obviously, litigation could change any schedule.”
The committee would give Bentley and his attorneys an opportunity to submit their own findings at hearings before the committee. Bentley could also testify himself.
“He will be welcome to be a witness,” Sharman wrote to Bentley’s attorneys.
Bentley has been under fire since March 2016, when Spencer Collier, then-Alabama Law Enforcement Agency secretary, accused Bentley of maintaining an extramarital affair with his former top political aide Rebekah Mason. Bentley’s relationship with Mason, which he has said was not physical, has been the subject of the impeachment investigation.
The committee, the Attorney General’s Office and the Alabama Ethics Commission, have all been looking into Bentley’s behavior surrounding the affair and whether he used state resources and money to facilitate it. The Ethics Commission is set to meet in early April, at which time they may send charges to the Attorney General’s Office.
Bentley has denied any legal wrongdoing, calling the effort to impeach him “political grandstanding.” Garber criticized Sharman’s tentative schedule, which he believes is unreasonable and rushed.
“Apparently the outside lawyer for the Judiciary Committee has decided that the only way to accomplish the first ever impeachment of an Alabama governor is to violate the law,” Garber wrote. “The Alabama Supreme Court and the Rules of the House of Representatives require that the Governor be given due process. Common sense dictates that an election not be overthrown without fair procedures. I have confidence that responsible members of the Judiciary Committee will not allow their proceedings to be hijacked and turned into a kangaroo court.”
Garber also took Sharman’s plan for his written report and presentation to task. According to the procedures, Sharman may or may not call witnesses. Garber said the committee members should be able to judge for themselves the credibility of witnesses, not rely on Sharman’s written report.
“In addition to this being an unreliable way to determine the truth, your proposed process would deprive the Governor of the most basic and well-established due process protections: the right to confront and cross-examine one’s accusers,” Garber wrote.
The House Judiciary Committee began investigating Bentley in 2016 after several members of the House introduced a resolution calling for articles of impeachment. The committee met several times last year and even went so far as to subpoena the governor, Mason and others close to them.
But in November, then-Attorney General Luther Strange asked the committee to suspend its investigation because he was afraid it would overlap with “necessary related work” within his office. In February, newly appointed Attorney General Steve Marshall appointed a special prosecutor to oversee an active investigation into Bentley.
The announcement of the tentative schedule comes after several representatives have made their impatience known. They want to move forward faster and more aggressively.
“We have been empaneled as members of the Legislature to decide on an impeachment resolution, to determine whether the governor should be removed,” said Allen Farley, R-McCalla, earlier this month.
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