Monday, April 10, 2017

Last Call For Bitter Home Alabama, Con't

Alabama GOP Gov. Robert Bentley has now resigned effective today, as the impeachment scandal involving his affair with Rebekah Mason, a former staffer, and his use of state police resources to try to cover up the affair has led his own party to begin formal impeachment hearings.  Rather than face ouster and a trial over felony corruption charges, Bentley is resigning and pleading to misdemeanor charges instead.

Embattled Gov. Robert Bentley this afternoon agreed to a deal that forced him to resign the office of governor, plead guilty to two misdemeanors and agree to never again hold public office.

The extraordinary agreement, hammered out over the weekend and throughout the day by lawyers for the Alabama Attorney General's office and Bentley attorneys Chuck Malone and Cooper Shattuck, requires Bentley to repay the state for misused funds and perform community service.

In response, the state attorney general's office will not pursue other felonies against Bentley, including those referred for prosecution last week by the Alabama Ethics Commission.

Bentley, as part of the deal, was expected to:
  • Resign immediately and leave public life.
  • Plead guilty to two campaign violations: converting campaign contributions for personal gain and failing to report campaign contributions.
  • Serve one year of probation.
  • Perform 100 hours of unpaid community service as a physician.
  • Repay the $8,912 his campaign spent on the legal fees of former aide Rebekah Mason, whose involvement with Bentley led to the charges against him.
  • Forfeit all the money in his campaign account, which is currently $36,912. The money will go into state coffers.

In response, the state attorney general's office will not pursue other felonies against Bentley, including those referred for prosecution last week by the Alabama Ethics Commission.

Whether the governor faces jail time on the misdemeanors - which are technically punishable by as much as a year in prison - is left to the judge who will sentence him. It is unlikely he will serve time.

He won't.  But the misdemeanors mean Bentley won't pull a Blagojevich and contest a conviction on state ethics laws.  Considering Bentley was facing the rest of his natural life in prison at age 77, he's taking the easy out his party is giving him.  100 hours of community service is a cakewalk compared to what he was going to get.

Another crooked Republican goes down.  Hopefully he won't be the last to resign in 2017.

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