Trump-endorsed Republican wants to impeach Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan

The attack from within his own party also highlights Hogan’s complicated political calculus as he weighs a 2024 bid for the White House. The governor’s anti-Trump comments and popularity among Maryland Democratic voters hasn’t insulated him from sharp Republican criticism, including former president Donald Trump’s characterization of Hogan as a RINO — Republican In Name Only.

Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci dismissed Cox’s actions.

“This guy is known to be a QAnon conspiracy theorist. He’s got this weird obsession with the governor. Surprised it took this long, frankly,” Ricci said.

Cox and Hogan have publicly sparred, with Hogan dismissing Cox as a “Q-Anon conspiracy theorist who says crazy things every day.” The delegate called Vice President Mike Pence “a traitor” on Twitter during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and days later issued an apologetic explanation to the legislature’s ethics committee.

The resolution details six proposed articles of impeachment, with more than a dozen accusations, including violating religious freedom through pandemic restrictions on churches, and “acts of tyranny” in restricting access to the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the parasite drug ivermectin for covid-19 patients. Those controversial treatments have been promoted by Trump or bolstered by right-wing conspiracy theorists but roundly rejected by federal health officials.

Cox takes issue with Hogan’s vaccine mandate for health-care workers, use of a “snitch line” to report private Thanksgiving gatherings that violate pandemic restrictions, designation of businesses as “nonessential” and therefore to be closed under pandemic rules, and the use of police to monitor crowds outside of Easter services — all of which Cox argues violates rights to liberty or property. The “snitch line” seems to refer to Hogan’s November 2020 covid-prevention hotline for residents to report violations of his public health order banning large indoor groups.

Some allegations are less clear, such as the assertion that Hogan may have erased records related to “his unlawful decision to fly and bus into the State, in the cover of night, thousands of unvetted unlawful-entry foreign nationals, and then release them onto our streets, endangering the public safety and health.”

The governor’s most recent embrace of foreign nationals came in August after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Then, Hogan said the state was “ready and willing” to accept more Afghan refugees and special immigrant visa (SIV) recipients, saying “it is the least we can do.”

Some other allegations are based on Washington Post reporting, noting that Hogan spent $9.46 million on coronavirus tests from South Korea that ultimately were unusable and had to be replaced at an additional cost. Another accusation centers on Post findings that Hogan and his inner circle communicate using Wickr, an app that automatically deletes messages; transparency advocates say the practice violates the spirit of open-records laws.

“In all of this, Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr., has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Governor and subversive of the State’s constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of Maryland. Wherefore, Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr., by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office,” the resolution says.

Maryland’s constitution provides for the impeachment of governors and lieutenant governors but is silent on what offenses merit removal. A public official convicted of a felony or a certain misdemeanor related to public duties is automatically suspended from office and then removed once appeals have been exhausted.

No Maryland governor has been impeached, according to a 2000 Maryland Bar Journal law review article by George A. Nilson, who went on to become Baltimore City solicitor. The author found no evidence that impeachment proceedings have been brought against a governor. No impeachment proceedings have been launched in the two decades since the article was written, and the House of Delegates has not adopted rules for doing so.

A simple majority of the House of Delegates can move for an impeachment trial, which is conducted by the Maryland Senate. Removal from office requires a two-thirds majority vote by the Senate.

Both chambers are dominated by Democratic supermajorities, whose leaders were not immediately available for comment Thursday morning.

The impeachment resolution will head to the House Rules Committee, which is not obligated to vote or hold a hearing on the measure.