Governor Bentley Impeachment Investigation Moves Forward, Attorneys Hired On Both Sides

It’s been over 100 years since an Alabama official faced possible impeachment, and now the effort to look into Governor Robert Bentley has finally started.

After setting up rules, the biggest hurdle was finding someone to look into the governor.

The house judiciary committee voted and approved Jack Sharman, an attorney out of Birmingham.

“One good thing about this person is he knows what he’s doing. He’s been part of this type of process before. It’s not going to take a learning curve. That’s one of the things we were concerned about early on, whoever we brought on would have to learn the job,” said Rep. Mike Jones who heads the committee.

Sharman’s experience includes being special counsel for US senate whitewater committee investigating the Clintons in the 90’s.

He says he plans to hit the ground running with his new job.

“The first steps are to figure out who we need to talk to, what kind of documents we want, and what kind of road map that does or does not give you. A lot of it depends on the availability, or unavailability of documents, whether witnesses are cooperative,” said Sharman.

He wasn’t the only attorney hired Friday.

Governor Bentley announced a new addition to his legal team as well.

His personal attorney Joe Espy says he should be a big help.

“The legal staff felt like in the view of the appointment of special counsel for the committee, they needed someone with experience to also work with the legal staff. This particular lawyer has worked both on connecticut and south carolina impeachment proceedings,” said Espy.