By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Surrounded by close to 100 supporters holding signs from their hometowns Wednesday outside the State House, Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, decried a bill seeking to impeach her, describing it as an attempt to silence voters.
Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, who is sponsoring the measure, said the resolution is appropriate given Hill’s conduct in sending an email related to voter rights in an attempt to sue the state.
House Resolution 41 https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=2406&inflect=2 was introduced Wednesday and will go to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
Hill said the conduct alleging impropriety in the email was reviewed by New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, who found no violation of state law or ethics.
“Despite that, some elected officials are continuing to pursue an impeachment inquiry – not because I did something illegal or unethical but because they disagree with what I said,” Liot Hill said.
Filing such a resolution is their prerogative, she said, but it raises serious questions about how impeachment is being used and what message that sends.
She said that in New Hampshire, removing an elected official from office has traditionally been the responsibility of voters through elections every two years.
“Impeachment is the most powerful constitutional tool the legislature has,” Hill said. “It exists to address bribery, corruption or serious misconduct in office. Historically, it has been used sparingly and exclusively in cases involving judges where there is no opportunity for accountability to the voters.”
Last September, Sweeney filed an intent to sponsor legislation to investigate whether there are grounds to impeach Hill.
This was done before Formella issued a conclusion late last fall that closed the investigation with no charges of wrongdoing.
In August, Sweeney claimed Hill used her office for “political lawfare” against New Hampshire’s new voter-ID law.
Published emails show Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill used her official office to help a partisan, Washington, D.C., law firm recruit plaintiffs to sue New Hampshire over our voter-ID and absentee safeguards, Sweeney said. “That’s not public service; that’s political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox.”
Republicans also attacked Liot Hill related to campaign spending. She amended her filings and repaid her campaign about $2,000, mostly for clothing and some smaller items.
She is the only Democrat on the state’s five-member Executive Council.
At the gathering Wednesday, Liot Hill said this is an attack on free expression, not just for her but for everyone who participates in civic life.
“That chilling effect doesn’t stop with elected officials,” she said, but also with citizens. She said she is defending a constitutional boundary.
“Karen Liot Hill knows exactly why she is being held accountable,” Sweeney wrote in an email Wednesday to InDepthNH.org.
“She used her position as an Executive Councilor to recruit litigants for a lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire,” Sweeney wrote. “She actively assisted an out-of-state Washington, D.C., law firm in suing our own state over common sense, pragmatic voter integrity laws supported by Granite Staters. That conduct is malpractice and maladministration.”
“An elected official does not get to use the power of their office to aid outside interests in attacking the laws of the state they swore to uphold. That is not representation. That is an abuse of authority.
“This is not about silencing voters. It is about enforcing standards and protecting the integrity of the state government. For this level of misconduct, impeachment is not extreme. It is appropriate,” Sweeney said.