Brian Lyman

Montgomery Advertiser

Gov. Robert Bentley and members of the House Judiciary Committee continue to clash over the committee's authority to demand documents from Bentley amid an impeachment investigation.

Attorneys for the governor Monday filed a motion objecting to a subpoena for documents issued by the committee, calling it “unlawful and unenforceable” and saying it demanded too much out of Bentley’s office.

“It is also patently abusive, outrageously overbroad, unduly burdensome and far outside the legitimate scope of this committee’s inquiry into the articles of impeachment brought against Gov. Bentley,” the filing stated.

A message seeking comment was left with Jackson Sharman, the special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday morning.

Wandering through a constitutional fog, Bentley and members of the House committee have pulled each other in opposite directions to determine the right path through the impeachment process. Alabama’s 1901 Constitution is vague on how impeachments should proceed, and the House of Representatives has only tried to impeach a state official once in the past 115 years.

The extent of the Legislature’s subpoena power is a key dispute. There is no explicit provision in the Alabama Constitution or state laws allowing a legislative committee to enforce that provision. Bentley’s attorneys want the committee to take note of that silence. In their filing, the governor’s attorneys noted that the Legislature has failed to pass legislation that would give committees subpoena authority, and notes the Legislature has granted subpoena power to some joint committees but not legislative ones.

“That the committee, its chairman and its special counsel are nevertheless claiming such authority is bizarre and outrageous,” the statement said. “The subpoena issued to the governor’s office is patently invalid.”

On a conference call Tuesday afternoon, Ross Garber, representing Bentley, said they wanted members of the House Judiciary Committee to understand their position.

"That filing points out what many members of the Legislature already know and have explicitly recognized: that the committee has no authority to issue or enforce a subpoena," he said.

Sharman argued in a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27 that the state Constitution gave the committee an implied power of subpoena enforcement, and said state Supreme Courts generally granted those powers.

Sharman also told Bentley’s attorneys in a letter sent over the summer that failure to provide the committee documents could itself be grounds for impeachment. He also sharply criticized Bentley’s legal team for what he characterized as a lack of cooperation on their part.

Bentley’s defense team said Tuesday it has turned over an additional 10,759 pages of documents in the investigation. The Montgomery Advertiser filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the filing Tuesday. Garber said the documents covered a broad range of categories, and said they turned over the files as a sign that they wanted to work together, despite the subpoena dispute.

"It is our hope the branches of government can work to a greater extent on this in a cooperative way," he said.

Former Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Spencer Collier in March accused Bentley of pursuing an affair with Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his political advisor. Collier said Bentley used state resources to pursue it, and said Bentley attempted to stop him from cooperating in a criminal probe of then-House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn.

Bentley acknowledged making inappropriate remarks to Mason, but both deny having an affair. The governor calls the impeachment process "political grandstanding." But Collier's accusations led 23 members of the House in April to sign articles of impeachment, triggering the investigation.

The governor's first filing to the committee included a lengthy report on an investigation into Collier's leadership at ALEA that was critical of Collier's management. Collier, likely to be a key witness against Bentley, called the release "sleaze" last week and denied the allegations in it. Garber Tuesday denied the release was an effort to discredit Collier, saying the committee "specifically requested information related to Spencer Collier."