Sen. Nicole Mitchell removed from committees, caucus meetings

The DFL state senator who was arrested and charged last week with burglarizing her stepmother’s home has now been removed from her Senate committee assignments and caucus meetings.

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL- St. Paul) announced the decision Sunday morning, saying Sen. Nicole Mitchell “will be relieved of her committee assignments and removed from caucus meetings” amid her legal proceedings.

Murphy added that many questions surrounding Mitchell’s case still need to be answered but, while her case plays out in the courts and in a Senate ethics subcomittee, Mitchell won’t have her normal duties at the Capitol.

Mitchell has said she has no plans to resign and shared her own narrative of the incident that doesn’t match the police and charging documents’ accounts.

As mentioned, Senate Republicans have filed an ethics complaint against Mitchell, and while she remains part of the Senate, her colleagues could decide on punishments ranging up to expulsion.

Ken Martin, the chairman of the DFL Party, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the allegations against Mitchell are “disturbing” and would make him consider resigning if he were in Mitchell’s place, although he stopped short of calling for her to resign.

While Mitchell is out on conditional bail and isn’t scheduled to appear in court again until June 10, she hasn’t yet returned to the Capitol since her arrest on Monday.