{"id":359285,"date":"2022-01-07T14:25:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T04:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=359285"},"modified":"2022-01-07T14:25:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T04:25:07","slug":"governors-legal-counsel-responds-to-jgo-chairs-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/governors-legal-counsel-responds-to-jgo-chairs-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor\u2019s legal counsel responds to JGO chair\u2019s statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gil Birnbrich, legal counsel for the governor, issued the following statement in response to the statement issued late Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2021, by Rep. Celina Babauta, who chairs the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations:<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Late Wednesday, the chairwoman of the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations issued a press release within which she stated that Gov. Ralph Torres \u201cattempted to manipulate the Judicial Branch by requesting a closed-door meeting between himself and the chief justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u00a0did not<\/em>\u00a0seek a personal meeting with the chief of justice.\u00a0His counsel requested a conference to seek clarification of the chief justice’s order to notify the clerk of court of any \u201cgood cause or reason\u201d why Judge Bellas should not sit on the case. The governor was not going to be present at any meeting allowed by the chief justice.<\/p>\n

Counsel also sought the same clarification by letter.\u00a0 Specifically, counsel asked whether such \u201cgood cause or reason\u201d was limited to the ordinary grounds for judicial disqualification, or whether it was intended to include a broader range of concerns.<\/p>\n

Significantly, neither the governor nor his counsel impugned or maligned the qualifications of Judge Bellas. Counsel wrote: \u201cGovernor Torres does not believe any statutory grounds exist that disqualify Judge Bellas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsel then expressed the governor’s broader concerns as follows:<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the governor believes that neither Judge Bellas nor any other current or former CNMI judge should serve as judge pro tempore in this matter.\u00a0 The CNMI is a small community; there is scarcely a family that does not have ties to the government and a history of close political allegiances. So extensive are these ties that all five sitting Superior Court judges have had to disqualify themselves for one reason or another.\u00a0 In light of the highly partisan atmosphere surrounding the governor\u2019s ongoing dispute with the committee, the governor believes that no single CNMI judge, current or former, can either be truly insulated from it or, no less important, be perceived by the public, reasonably or not, as insulated from it.\u00a0 \u2026In the highly charged political atmosphere surrounding this case, it is essential that there be no public perception whatsoever that the judge may be partial politically to one side or the other. The losing side may well want to cry foul, yet it is in the best interest of the whole community, as well as the health of political debate in the Commonwealth, that no hook be provided for either side to hang its hat on. This can only be attained by having a judge from outside the Commonwealth preside in the Superior Court.<\/p>\n

As this letter makes clear, the governor did not \u201cquestion the integrity of the CNMI judiciary\u201d as the chairwoman claimed.\u00a0 On the contrary, his counsel specifically stated: \u201cThe governor has great faith in the ability and integrity of CNMI judges,\u201d but also noted that \u201csometimes the better part of judgment is knowing when to step away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the chairwoman’s distortion and misrepresentation of the governor’s concerns demonstrate all too clearly that those concerns are valid, and that, if a partisan spin can be put on anything related to this dispute, it will be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gil Birnbrich, legal counsel for the governor, issued the following statement in response to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":352427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3663,14696,8223],"class_list":["post-359285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-gil-birnbrich","tag-house-committee","tag-jgo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}