{"id":365820,"date":"2022-04-06T06:06:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T20:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=365820"},"modified":"2022-04-06T06:06:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T20:06:59","slug":"house-insists-on-5-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/house-insists-on-5-prosecutors\/","title":{"rendered":"House insists on 5 prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives insists on having five members serve as prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, in direct opposition to the stance of the Republican-controlled Senate, thus setting the stage for a showdown between the two chambers of the 22nd Legislature.<\/p>\n

In response to Saipan Tribune\u2019s inquiry about the impeachment matter, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) said yesterday that they have decided to stick to their decision that there should be a team of prosecutors of his choosing.<\/p>\n

Villagomez earlier appointed five prosecutors\u2014vice speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao (R-Saipan), and Reps. Corina L. Magofna (D-Saipan), Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan), Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota), and Leila C. Staffler (D-Saipan)\u2014to prosecute Torres in the Senate.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Villagomez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He said Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) had appointed one\u2014Magofna as the sole prosecutor\u2014but Magofna has declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if I am not mistaken, the Senate president said they will proceed with or without [a prosecutor],\u201d Villagomez said.<\/p>\n

Villagomez did not mention what they are going to do if the Senate will proceed with the trial with or without a House prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Hofschneider told Saipan Tribune Monday that the Senate-adopted Impeachment Rules require the Senate president to appoint a prosecutor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made that appointment already,\u201d said Hoschneider, referring to Magofna.<\/p>\n

The Senate first appointed Villagomez as prosecutor, but the speaker declined. The Senate then appointed Attao, but the vice speaker also declined. This prompted Hofschneider to appoint Magofna, but Magofna declined too. Villagomez instead appointed Magofna and four other representatives to serve as the House\u2019s prosecutorial team.<\/p>\n

The Senate is controlled by the Republican Party. Torres is seeing re-election in the Nov. 8 election under the Republican Party. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives insists on having five members serve as prosecutors in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":365831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-365820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365820","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}