By Chip Brownlee
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, said Wednesday that he will wait to meet with Supernumerary District Attorney Ellen Brooks, the prosecutor responsible for overseeing a criminal investigation of Gov. Robert Bentley, before deciding the course of impeachment hearings in the House.
“I have spoken briefly with Ms. Brooks and plan to meet with her further in the near future,” Jones said in a statement. “Once that occurs I will have a better understanding of how and when we will be able to resume our work.”
Attorney General Steve Marshall, whom Bentley appointed earlier this month, announced that he would recuse himself from an active investigation into the Governor, opting to appoint Brooks as a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation being conducted by the AG’s Special Prosecutions Division Chief Matt Hart.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee established a subcommittee to study rules and procedures for a possible Senate impeachment trial. Sen. Phil Williams will chair the subcommittee, which will meet for the first time on Thursday.
The House Judiciary Committee, charged with conducting the separate House investigation of Bentley for possible impeachment, suspended its investigation in November after then-Attorney General Luther Strange asked the committee to pause.
The committee began hearings in June after several members of the Alabama House introduced articles of impeachment against the Governor in April 2016. More than a dozen House member signed on to the resolution calling for the investigation after Bentley became entangled in a sex scandal with his former aide Rebekah Mason.
In July, the committee hired Birmingham lawyer Jack Sharman as special counsel. By October, the committee had conducted preliminary hearings, established procedures and had even issued subpoenas to Bentley, Mason and others close to them, but with little success.
“I plan to work with Mr. Sharman so that as soon as the time is right, he will be prepared to move forward,” Jones said Wednesday. “It would be my hope that once our process resumes we will be working quickly to having whatever hearings or meetings are necessary to issue the report and recommendation required of us.”
The Governor and Mason both refused to comply with the subpoenas issued by the committee, though Bentley did turn over thousands of pages of documents to the committee in a large document dump.
That dump included travel information, receipts and was said to include an ALEA probe into former Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier, who had been fired in March 2016 for what Bentley said was “possible misuse of State funds.”
A grand jury later cleared him of those charges.
Bentley has apologized for an inappropriate relationship he maintained with Mason since the scandal broke last year after Collier accused the Governor and Mason of an affair. Days later, recordings were released of a lewd phone conversation between Bentley and Mason.
In addition to the allegations of an affair, evidence later arose suggesting Bentley might have misused State funds and resources to facilitate the affair.
Collier also accused Bentley of firing him for having cooperated, against the Governor’s orders, with the State investigation into former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn.
Last week, Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Cullman, and Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Cullman, began circulating a new impeachment resolution to update charges against the Governor and press the Judiciary Committee to resume impeachment hearings.
Harbison and Shedd’s impeachment resolution would have added new charges to the resolution passed last year. The new charges held that Bentley illegally used campaign funds to pay his former top aide’s legal fees and that he received an improper reimbursement from the Republican Governor’s Association.
Several legislators suggested last week that they were considering an alternative route to get around the stalled committee. The plan would have brought articles of impeachment before the full House for a vote.
At that point, three-fifths of the House members could issue a charge against the Governor and send the process on to the Senate, which would function as a court to try the Governor for possible removal.
The legislators suggested that process could begin as soon as Thursday if the Judiciary Committee remained stalled. With the announcement of Brooks’ appointment, though, it is unclear whether the legislators will continue on with this alternative.
Email Chip Brownlee at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
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