A Democratic state lawmaker is launching an impeachment probe targeting Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes over his ties to a GOP attorneys general association — an organization that encouraged people to rally at the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt.
Rep. Andrew Stoddard is moving forward with the effort to impeach Reyes because of the attorney general’s “work to undermine our election process and results, and his regular failure to represent his client, the state.” He also wrote that he wanted more information about how the Republican Attorneys General Association was involved in “the domestic terror attack on our Nation’s Capitol.”
“This is not a move I am taking lightly,” Stoddard wrote in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “And in spite of assumptions that this is a partisan or political move, it is not.”
Stoddard, D-Murray, added that the state law leaves legislators few options when it comes to investigating elected officials in other branches, forcing them to choose between making public records requests or exploring impeachment.
“I know it sounds extreme, but this is really the only way I have to get information. We don’t have any middle ground when it comes to investigation,” he said in an interview.
Stoddard said he decided to take the impeachment route because of the frustrations he encountered when trying to get information about the no-bid contracts handed out by the state during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawmaker has no illusions that his proposal will gain any traction in the GOP-controlled Legislature, but said he’s not just pulling a political stunt.
“The good of the state outweighs any backlash I may face politically,” he said. “If this never gets out [of the House Rules Committee for public debate] then it never gets out. But, at least opening it allows me to do some investigating and hopefully find out more information.”
Utah law permits House representatives to file impeachment resolutions against elected leaders for “high crimes, misdemeanors or malfeasance in office,” but the measures need a two-thirds majority for passage. That outcome here is highly improbable, given the GOP supermajority in the state Legislature and Utah’s rare use of impeachment powers.
However, state Sen. Derek Kitchen, D-Salt Lake City, voiced his support for Stoddard’s impeachment resolution Tuesday, tweeting that “we need ethics in the AG’s office.”
The Rule of Law Defense Fund — a policy arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association and a group that Reyes recently led — has faced criticism for sending out a robocall that urged people to attend the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a deadly riot at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Reyes, the defense fund’s former chairman, has distanced himself from the recorded messages and said he was not involved in organizing the rally.
Stoddard also took aim at Reyes’ efforts to challenge the results of the presidential election, including the attorney general’s move to join a lawsuit to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss in four battleground states. The Supreme Court tossed out the legal challenge, and Reyes’ participation in the suit drew condemnation from top Republicans in Utah.
Then-Gov Gary Herbert and now-Gov. Spencer Cox criticized Reyes for an “unwise” use of taxpayer resources and said they’d been caught off guard when the attorney general announced he wanted in on the election challenge. Herbert argued it was inappropriate for Utah to get involved in another state’s elections, while Cox said there was no evidence of widespread irregularities in the presidential contest.
Shortly after the November election, Reyes also took time off from his official position to assist Trump’s team in contesting the outcome and traveled to Nevada to investigate alleged voting problems in the state. Though Utah’s attorney general said he’d seen “voting irregularities,” no evidence of widespread fraud ever emerged.
“Utah’s Attorney General, Sean Reyes, has worked shamelessly over the past few months to undermine our country’s election results,” Stoddard wrote in a statement released Tuesday morning. “As an attorney and a public officer, he has violated his duty to the State.”
The Salt Lake Tribune will update this article.
