Days before lawmakers were scheduled to hold another special session to draw up a new article of impeachment, Justice Allen Loughry saved them the trouble and has resigned.
Gov. Jim Justice announced Loughry’s resignation Saturday evening, a day after he called a special session for Tuesday to start a new impeachment process against the former chief justice.
“I hereby resign my position as a justice on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia at the close of business on November 12, 2018,” Loughry wrote in his one-sentence resignation letter.
Lawmakers had planned to draw up a new article of impeachment based on Loughry’s Oct. 13 conviction in U.S. District Court on 11 felonies, including mail and wire fraud, witness tampering, and making false statements. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia indicted Loughry in June on 22 federal charges.