Senators Accuse President of Conspiracy to Defame Rival
By George Agathos USG President Romual Jean-Baptiste faces a possible impeachment at Tuesday's senate meeting, along with Michael Cohan, Jean-Baptiste's mid-year replacement appointee for Junior Class Representative. The articles of impeachment outline an alleged conspiracy to frame Sen. Joe Antonelli with putting up offensive fliers attacking his opponents in this year's presidential race. The articles were approved unanimously to go to the senate by the Legislative Review Committee. The senate will meet on Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. in SAC Ballroom B, where the impeachment resolutions for both Jean-Baptiste and Cohan will be under consideration. The articles accuse Jean-Baptiste of being complicit in designing and ordering the posting of the fliers in the Student Activities Center . They allege that Cohan was identified in a surveillance tape posting the fliers, and, when confronted, identified Jean-Baptiste as ordering him to do so. The two flier designs-- each appearing to attack one of Antonelli's opponents, including Jean-Baptiste-- were posted just prior to the political debates in the SAC on Wednesday, March 14, according to the articles. Antonelli said he filed a police report that night. The flier design allegedly engineered to look like a racist attack on Jean-Baptiste contained side-by-side photos of Jean-Baptiste and a chimpanzee. At the top, the flier read "DO YOU WANT THIS TO BE YOUR USG PRESIDENT?" and at the bottom a message of "VOTE JOE, VOTE SUCCESS." The other flier design, allegedly engineered to attack candidate Chinelo Onochie, current vice president of academic affairs, depicted her in suggestive poses-- some in which she is wearing nothing but a bikini-- with the same messages across the top and bottom. In comments to the Independent on Saturday, Jean-Baptiste denied rumours that he would resign on Monday to avoid impeachment. He did not resign on Monday, and could be seen in the halls of the SAC near the USG suite with Cohan. Jean-Baptiste also declined to comment about the allegations and the posters on Monday and prior, but could not be reached for comment after the articles of impeachment were approved. Jean-Baptiste withdrew from the USG elections last Friday, saying he withdrew from the race for president because he realized it's his last year and he needs to focus on academics. The first two articles would charge Jean-Baptiste with violating the student code of conduct and the Elections Board Bylaws. Article I: The President designed and directed the posting of fraudulent elections fliers falsely attributed to candidate Joseph Antonelli, the fliers contained defamation of character against his opponents and incitement of racial hatred against Joseph Antonelli in particular. Such acts violate the student code of conduct and constitute a wrongful act of substance, an impeachable offense under the Constitution of the Undergraduate Student Government. Such conduct warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the Undergraduate Student Government. Article II: The President designed and directed the posting of fraudulent elections fliers falsely attributed to candidate Joseph Antonelli, the fliers contained defamation of character against his opponents and incitement of racial hatred against Joseph Antonelli in particular. Such acts violate the Elections Board Bylaws’ rules and regulations regarding posting of campaign literature, and constitutes a violation of the Constitution, legislation, policies and procedures of the Undergraduate Student Government, an impeachable offense under the Constitution of the Undergraduate Student Government. Such conduct warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the Undergraduate Student Government.
The articles contained accusations that Jean-Baptiste manipulated USG investigative authority. According to the articles of impeachment and a document released by the Elections Board this weekend, he had District Advocate Alex Ovtcharenko investigate Onochie for using a USG facebook group to promote her candidacy, then called off the investigation when it discovered that he too had committed something similar to the supposed infraction. The language further accused Jean-Baptiste of lying to Elections Board Advisor and Senate leader Robert Romano about this matter when confronted. Onochie and Jean-Baptiste were disqualified by the Elections Board from the current presidential election for these Facebook activities last Friday, but that decision was reversed by the Supreme Court. Onochie was then returned to the ballot. Article III: Presidential candidate Chinelo Onochie had been accused by the President of violating elections laws by using a USG-related Facebook group to conduct electioneering for her campaign. When confronted with evidence that he himself had conducted the same acts, he ordered the investigation to stop and perjured himself to the Elections Board in an attempt to cover up his culpability. In doing so, he obstructed the administration of justice and warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the Undergraduate Student Government.
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this ought to be interesting
Jean-Baptiste suddenly realized he was a senior and had to focus on academics.
Those things tend to come out of no-flipping-where, huh? Sort of like the way accusations do, and things like being caught in the act.
Personally, I think Karl Rove would be very proud of Romual.
It truly is a shame if this "class act" Cohan will get to serve on USG next year, despite all of this, by virtue of him being the only candidate for the position. Certainly it would be another decisive step towards another year of "more of the same" at USG.
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