The Minnesota Senate Ethics Committee meets Tuesday take up a complaint against State Senator Nicole Mitchell (DFL- Woodbury), who is charged with burglarizing her stepmother's home.
Senate Minority Leader Republican Mark Johnson (R- East Grand Forks) explained what's likely to happen.
"So, they'll take the police report, they'll take transcripts from what happened, they'll also take her social media account where she tried to really whitewash the story in this case," says Johnson. "You'll see quite a difference between her version, and the police report and what her mother through an interview says as well. This will be a time when all those facts come out."
The criminal complaint says Mitchell was found in the basement of her stepmother's home just before 5:00 a.m. Monday wearing all black clothing and a black hat.
In a Facebook post, Mitchell denied stealing and says she was checking on a loved one with Alzheimer's.
WCCO Radio political analyst Blois Olson says the committee will first try to establish if there is probable cause.
"My sense is they will," Olson said on the WCCO Morning News Monday. "The Ethics Committee is two Democrats, and two Republicans. So, they're going to be watching those votes very carefully, obviously to see if it's a two-two tie or things like that."
"They can find probably cause, they can find no probably cause, or they can decide to wait until the criminal proceedings play out," explained State Senator Nick Frentz (DFL- North Mankato).
The ethics committee is chaired by DFL Senate President Bobby Joe Champion (Minneapolis). Any motion that is a tie is defeated. Mitchell has said she won't resign and isn't up for re-election until 2026.
Republicans tried all last week on the Senate floor to get Mitchell to resign, or not allow her to vote. All of those attempts failed.