Maztica Senate Plots Impeachment of Judge Who Jailed Warlord

Maztica's incoming right-wing Senate has picked its target: the High Justice who jailed Warlord Jairo Bolsonare for plotting a coup. An impeachment of a sitting High Justice would be the first in the realm's history, and the vote count is closer than the Tribunal would like.

The numbers, as I have them. The Liberty Lanterns, the Warlord's party, grew from 15 Senate seats to 28 in the recent vote. Allied banners bring them close to a working majority. Impeaching a High Justice takes 54 votes. The pro-Warlord bloc may be near that line. The Senate has never once approved such a petition, though 109 of them sit in the Senate President's drawer, unread and gathering dust. Impeachment, in the sense of a sharpened blade, has been in the armory for years. Nobody had the arm to swing it.

The target is High Justice Alexandro de Moraine of the Supreme Federal Tribunal. He ran the case that ended with the Warlord convicted and locked away. The Warlord's son, Flavio Bolsonare the Younger, now leads the Lanterns' campaign for the presidency. His platform would strip the Tribunal of power over criminal cases against officials and limit what a single High Justice can rule alone. Allies have also floated amnesty for his father. A court that cannot try the powerful and a prisoner who walks free. Efficient. I have seen sieges with less coordination.

The timing is the real weapon. The runoff against Lord Luloo is October 25. The Younger finished the first round near 47 to Luloo's 45. If he wins, a gutted Tribunal means one fewer check on the man holding the keys. The wire-scribes note this, politely. I will note it less politely.

Tension in the Maztican capital stands at roughly thirty siege-days. The Senate has the walls surveyed, the ladders built, and a vote scheduled for sometime after the harvest. The High Justice has a robe and a gavel. Defenders of the Tribunal call the move an assault on the realm's balance of powers. The Lanterns call it accountability. Both sides have used that word to describe an opposing army.

A Senate clerk who asked not to be named, because clerks who are named stop being clerks, said the Senate President is 'reviewing the petitions with great care.' He has reviewed 109 of them. The count has not changed.

Ironjaw, filed from the front.