**[UPDATE: Alabama governor plans to resign over allegations he covered up affair with aide, says a person who spoke to governor.]**
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) has spent the past year unsuccessfully digging out of a growing heap of political trouble related to an alleged affair with a former top aide and allegations that he used public resources to carry it out and cover it up.
Now, the governor is faced with the possibility that he could lose his job, go to jail – or both.
On Saturday, more than a year after news of the affair broke wide open, the Alabama Supreme Court approved impeachment proceedings in the GOP-controlled state House against the governor.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to consider his impeachment Monday, based in part on a 3,000-page report the committee’s lawyer released Friday that included such scandalous details as “security personnel reported seeing [top aide Rebekah Caldwell Mason] leaving the office with her hair tousled and her clothing in disarray,” text messages between the two, allegations the governor threatened to fire or even arrest his wife’s staffers for talking about the affair.
The full state House could vote on impeachment in another week.
Impeachment isn’t the only battle Bentley is facing in the affair fall out. On Wednesday, a state ethics commission found probable cause that the governor broke laws with regard to the alleged affair, like allegedly using campaign funds to cover her legal fees. The Alabama Ethics Commission suggested four potential felony charges against Bentley for the Montgomery County district attorney to consider.
As he has from day one of this whole saga, Bentley remains defiant. He told reporters in Alabama on Friday: “I do not plan to resign. I have done nothing illegal. If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no. I have not.”
But developments these past few days mean Bentley faces some serious consequences for what has, until now, been mostly an eyebrow-raising saga. As Leada Gore, political reporter for AL.com, the largest statewide news organization in Alabama, told The Fix last year: “It’s got every part of a scandal you could want.”
Here are some of the highlights on how we got to this moment and what could happen next:
– March 22, 2016: This whole thing broke open.
It appeared to start when Bentley fired the state’s top cop. That same day, the top cop told AL.com that Bentley had been having an affair with one of his top advisers.
In 2014, the fired cop said, Bentley was at a business conference when he apparently dropped his phone. A law enforcement official just so happened to see on the dropped phone a text message of a sexual nature from the governor’s married chief adviser, Mason.
Bentley, whose wife of 50 years had recently and abruptly filed for divorce, denied any wrongdoing.
– March 23, 2016: A sexually explicit phone call between Bentley and a woman he calls “Rebekah” made its way to the media. (Side note: Could have seen that one coming.)
The recording was made by his wife, Dianne Bentley, who was trying to ascertain the nature of Bentley’s relationship with his top adviser. In the recording, you can hear Bentley talk about putting his hands on her breasts and saying:
– – –
“Baby, let me know what I am going to do when I start locking the door. If we are going to do what we did the other day, we are going to have to start locking the door.”
“You know I just, I worry about sometimes I love so you much. I worry about loving you so much.”
– – –
– March 24, 2016: Bentley says this to defend himself: “I love many members of my staff, in fact, all the members of my staff. Do I love some more than others, absolutely.”
“Wow,” I wrote in response. “You know you’re in trouble when you say what Bentley just said.”
Mason resigned from her job.
– March 31, 2016: A state accustomed to scandal is officially embarrassed. That’s what AL.com’s Gore tells The Fix in a must-read interview running down the whole saga: “Everybody’s talking about this. This is an embarrassment to the state. I hear that a lot – that he’s embarrassed us. And that takes a lot. We have a high tolerance.”
The rest of March 2016: Republican lawmakers drop Bentley like a hot plate that they accidentally picked up after it had been sitting on the sidewalk at high noon in an Alabama August. Some called for an investigation into whether he used state property to carry out the alleged affair; others wanted to start impeachment proceedings. Republicans had little to lose and a lot to gain in ditching Bentley. As I reported at the time:
– – –
Republicans are pretty much the only game in town in this deep-red state, so it’s not like a Democrat could sweep in and take the governorship when or if Bentley steps down or is recalled. Plus, Republicans have a pretty deep bench they can pull from to replace him.
– April 4, 2016: At an unrelated visit to a jail, Bentley publicly asks God to forgive him – but he doesn’t say for what, exactly.
– April 6, 2016: Alabama GOP lawmakers take the first step to impeach their governor. Bentley is defiant.
– February: Longtime Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) is confirmed as President Donald Trump’s attorney general, and Bentley gets to pick his replacement. He chooses the state’s attorney general, Luther Strange, who was considering investigating Bentley for the whole affair saga.
– March 7: Alabama lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee split 6-6 in a vote on whether to continue investigating whether Bentley used state resources to conduct his alleged affair. They didn’t split on partisan lines, but rather, half the committee voted to hold off because it wanted to see what the state attorney general’s office was investigating.
– Wednesday: The Alabama Ethics Commission said it’s possible Bentley broke state laws. The commission didn’t provide many details, only to say he may have made an illegal loan to his campaign to cover legal fees for Mason. Through an attorney, Bentley denied any wrongdoing. “The battle goes on,” his attorney told the Associated Press.
– Friday: A district court blocked impeachment proceedings against Bentley in the state House, agreeing with the governor’s legal staff that the proceedings were unfair and did not give the governor enough time to respond to the accusations.
– Friday: The House Judiciary Committee’s attorney released a 3,000-page report on the affair that claimed Bentley created an atmosphere of intimidation to keep his affair secret:
– – –
“Gov. Bentley directed law enforcement to advance his personal interests and, in a process characterized by increasing obsession and paranoia, subjected career law enforcement officers to tasks intended to protect his reputation.”
– – –
– Saturday: The state Supreme Court overturned the district court’s block on impeachment proceedings. They will continue as the court looks at the full matter of whether they are being conducted fairly.
– Monday: The House Judiciary Committee will begin impeachment hearings and could pass it to the full state House in a week. If Bentley is impeached by the House, he’ll have to step down while the state Senate considers the impeachment.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Amber Phillips
