AUGUSTA, Maine — State prosecutors say there's no basis for a criminal investigation into Gov. Paul LePage's actions that led a charter school to withdraw a job offer from Maine House Speaker Mark Eves.
But that does not end the matter for some lawmakers, who are vowing to push for the impeachment of the governor next month.
Earlier this month three lawmakers wrote to Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and District Attorney Maeghan Maloney asking them to launch a criminal investigation of LePage’s conduct. They alleged LePage’s role in Eves being fired from the Good Will-Hinckley School, before he had even started working there, was an abuse of power and warranted a criminal probe.
Mills says she disagrees, and bases her finding on her own 40 years in law, and consultations with with senior prosecutors in her office.
"The conclusion was confident and unanimous that no apparent violation of the criminal code occurred on the facts as we know them," she says.
The facts were made clear in a review of the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee probe of Eves' firing. Mills says LePage's actions might be viewed as offensive or inappropriate to some, but do not run afoul of Maine criminal law.
"We conclude that there is not the basis at this time for us to pursue a criminal investigation," she says. "I distinctly say that the term abuse of power is irrelevant here because it is not a part of the Maine criminal code."
Independent Rep. Jeffery Evangelos from Friendship was one of the lawmakers asking for the investigation. He says he is not surprised at Mills' finding, but he disagrees with it and says that an effort to impeach LePage for his actions will go forward.
"We feel that the findings of the Government Oversight (Committee) demonstrates that we certainly had an abuse of power," Evangelos says. " No one has discretion as a government official to abuse their authority in order to harm another, and that does meet the standard of the oppression standard in our opinion."
Both Mills and Maloney say they specifically looked at the Official Oppression statute and again, found no basis under its provisions to pursue a criminal investigation of the governor.
At least two articles of impeachment are being drafted, says House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe of Skowhegan. He says while he understands Mills' finding, he cites widespread concern about what he calls LePage’s pattern of abusing power.
"No one should be under the fear and shadow of oppression by any other elected official," McCabe says. "We have said from the beginning that this an a overreach by the governor, and there are a number of legislators on both sides of the aisle that shouldn't have to look over their shoulder before casting a vote."
Under the impeachment process laid out in the Maine constitution, the House votes on what would be an indictment in a regular court, setting forth the charges against the office holder, in this case the governor. The State Senate would then hold a trial and vote on the charges in the impeachment resolution.
And there is another route available to lawmakers concerned about usurping the will of the voters by removing an elected governor from office. They could censure his actions, which would allow them to go on record without the political dynamic of a trial that could remove a sitting governor from office. It's something that has never happened in the history the state.
