Ala. governor remains defiant in sex scandal
Alabama MONTGOMERY, ALA. — Gov. Robert Bentley simultaneously sued to block potential impeachment proceedings and apologized to voters Friday, assuring them he has done nothing illegal and vowing to stay in office in the face of a sex-tinged scandal.
The governor’s defiance came at the end of particularly difficult week. Calls for Bentley’s resignation have grown, and he learned he could face criminal prosecution after the Alabama Ethics Commission found probable cause that he broke ethics and campaign law.
“Let me say to the people of this state how sorry I am,” Bentley told reporters on the marble steps of the Capitol. He did not take questions.
Moments before Bentley addressed the media, his office filed the lawsuit against the House Judiciary Committee seeking to block proceedings that include the release of a special counsel’s potentially embarrassing report in the ongoing impeachment investigation.
A judge said during a hastily called hearing on the lawsuit that he wasn’t inclined to block the release, but it wasn’t clear exactly when it would be made public.
In the court session, Bentley’s attorney asked Circuit Judge Roman Shaul to delay the public release of the report.
Bentley, 74, has been engulfed in scandal since recordings surfaced in 2016 of him making suggestive remarks to a female aide before he and his wife of 50 years got divorced. The mild-mannered dermatologist and former Baptist deacon has acknowledged making personal mistakes but maintained he did nothing illegal or to merit his removal from office.
The controversy erupted when the former head of state law enforcement, Spencer Collier, a day after being fired by Bentley, publicly accused Bentley of having an affair with his longtime political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
Collier said Mason wielded so much power that she was considered the “de facto governor.”
In his statement, Bentley continuedtodenyanycrimes and criticized unnamed people for “taking pleasure in shaming” him and his family.
“The people of this state have never asked to be told of or shown the intimate, embarrassing details of my personallifeandmypersonal struggles,” Bentley said.
In the lawsuit, Bentley called the impeachment process “fundamentally unfair.” Bentley’s legal adviser David Byrne told the judge that the rapidly moving process hasn’t given the governor time to respond.
“It has taken on an immediacy that we believe leaves due process in the dust,” Byrne said.
The special counsel to the Judiciary Committee, Jack Sharman, told the judge that the committee hadn’t violated any due process rights and court doesn’t have right to interfere with the Legislature’s hearing process.
Legislative lawyer Othni Lathram, also representing the Judiciary Committee, said some lawmakers wanted to vote on impeachment immediately, and hearings were meant to provide Bentley with due process.