By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

MONTGOMERY – A Republican state representative has filed a resolution in the state’s House of Representatives to begin the impeachment process against Republican Columbiana native Gov. Robert Bentley.

During an April 5 press conference in Montgomery featuring a bipartisan group of state legislators, state Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle, outlined the resolution he has submitted to a House committee to consider in the coming days.

“We’ve never done this before. We’ve never tried to impeach a governor,” Henry said during the press conference. “We have had the impeachment process one time in 1915, and we’re basically building off of that. So it’s going to be a process, but the process starts today.”

After Henry files the resolution calling for the House to issue articles of impeachment, the resolution will be considered by the House Rules Committee. If the resolution passes out of the committee, it will be considered by the full House.

If the House approves the resolution outlining its grounds for impeachment against Bentley, the Alabama Senate will then serve as “a court of impeachment” with Chief Justice Roy Moore presiding, according to the state Constitution.

Henry’s resolution claims Bentley has shown “willful neglect of duty, corruption in office, incompetency and offenses of moral turpitude.”

Bentley, who was originally elected governor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, has admitted to making inappropriate comments to his former senior political advisor, Rebekah Mason, who has since resigned from the position.

“We’re looking at this governor who has essentially betrayed the trust of the people of Alabama through actions and lies that have caused us to have some doubt about his leadership,” Henry said. “And as such, the only course the people of Alabama have to address this issue is through the impeachment process.”

Bentley said Henry’s press conference “is nothing more than political grandstanding intended to grab headlines and take the focus away from the important issues the Legislature still has to address before the end of the session.”

“There are no grounds for impeachment, and I will vigorously defend myself and my administration from this political attack,” Bentley wrote in a statement.

State Rep. Mike Hill, R-Columbiana, said Alabama law would require Bentley to leave office “immediately” if the Legislature votes to impeach him, and said the House Rules Committee likely will form a subcommittee to study the impeachment process.

“The subcommittee won’t find if he’s guilty or not, but it will look at how the process works. We need to find out what we need to do before this resolution comes out of the Rules Committee.” Hill said. “I hope I get on that committee. I’d like to keep some civility on it.

“I grieve for the governor every day,” Hill said. “I don’t know what happened, and I wish I didn’t have to know.”

State Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said he would not be in favor of impeaching Bentley unless Bentley committed a criminal act.

“It’s an ugly personal ordeal, but I don’t think anyone has proven yet that any crimes were committed. There are criminal investigations ongoing right now, and I think we need to follow those investigations,” Ward said. “(Impeachment) is a very high bar. If you start impeaching people just because of actions in their personal life, I think that’s a very slippery slope.

“I certainly don’t condone what he did in his personal life, but I’m not going to judge him for it either,” Ward said.