Pleae support Don Siegelman, BushCo political prisoner.

[EFerrari]

Background:

Rove Named in Alabama Controversy
Friday, Jun. 01, 2007 By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON

In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A longtime Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys.

The allegation was made by Dana Jill Simpson, a lifelong Republican and lawyer who practices in Alabama. She made the charges in a May 21 affidavit, obtained by TIME, in which she describes a conference call on November 18, 2002, which involved a group of senior aides to Bob Riley, who had just narrowly defeated Siegelman in a bitterly contested election for governor. Though Republican Riley, a former Congressman, initially found himself behind by several thousand votes, he had pulled ahead at the last minute when disputed ballots were tallied in his favor. After the abrupt vote turnaround, Siegelman sought a recount. The Simpson affidavit says the conference call focused on how the Riley campaign could get Siegelman to withdraw his challenge.

According to Simpson's statement, William Canary, a senior G.O.P. political operative and Riley adviser who was on the conference call, said "not to worry about Don Siegelman" because "'his girls' would take care of" the governor. Canary then made clear that "his girls" was a reference to his wife, Leura Canary, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html


Amy Goodman's take:



August 24, 2007
Political Prosecution? Justice Dept Holds onto Docs in Case of Jailed Alabama Governor Siegelman

We look at the case of jailed former Governor Don Siegelman. He is currently serving a seven-year, four-month prison sentence on charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud. We speak with attorney and Harper’s Magazine contributor, Scott Horton.

We turn to Alabama and to the case of jailed former Governor Don Siegelman. He is currently serving a seven-year, four-month prison sentence on charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud.

Jurors last year ruled that Governor Siegelman was bribed by HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy for a seat on the state health board. Prosecutors said Siegelman was bribed with $500,000 in contributions to his 1999 lottery campaign. Siegelman also was convicted on a separate obstruction of justice charge.

But critics say Siegelman is the target of a political witch hunt. The Justice Department has yet to comply with a request from Congress to release documents about the case. The House Judiciary Committee is gathering information about this prosecution and others that Democrats suspect were pursued for political reasons.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/8/24/political_prosecution_justice_dept_holds_onto


lala's 01/22 interview on this topic:
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/01/ring-of-fire-si.html


Don's website has action items here
http://www.donsiegelman.com/


Contact Don Siegelman in Prison:


Don Siegelman
#24775-0001
Satellite Prison Camp
Post Office Box 5010
Oakdale, LA 71463-5019


Thank you, DUers.

[pacalo]

1. Thanks for the links, sfexpat!

[EFerrari]

2. Thank you! And thank you to the quietly rec'ing and reading DUers.

They've done everything possible to suppress news about this case.

Just knowing about it is already a mind crime.

:kick:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. knr

[Richard Steele]

4. K&R

[bleever]

5. K&R.

Thank you.

[EFerrari]

6. Out to a gig but will be back.

DU. :loveya:

[KamaAina]

7. I smell a rat regarding Scrushy's involvement in the whole affair

Jurors last year ruled that Governor Siegelman was bribed by HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy for a seat on the state health board.

That'd be the Richard Scrushy who had just months earlier skated on all charges stemming from the second-largest business fraud in recent U.S. history, behind only Enron, while several of his associates took the fall. And then he turns around and apparently sets Siegelman up? :tinfoilhat:

[Orangepeel]

11. that's the main reason the jury convicted

Based on what I've been told, the prosecuter in Birmingham completely bungled Scrushy's first trial on fraud charges, so the jury in the second trial in Montgomery (when he was tried with Siegelman) were eager to convict.

I think that part of it was a situation that the republicans took advantage of rather than engineered. But, you never know.

[immoderate]

8. K, R.

--IMM

[tularetom]

9. K & R

I've made a contribution, wrote my congresscritter and told the story to the rest of our family. Gonna print out the info and make sure everybody I come into contact with hears about it.

[gateley]

10. Thank you - and thanks for the links.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the Dems in DC know about this? Isn't there ANYTHING they can do? Jeez, they've got enough law scholars hanging around.

[EFerrari]

12. Kick

[DeepModem Mom]

13. K&R!

[EFerrari]

14. Kick: Timing suspicious in Siegelman opinion

Timing suspicious in Siegelman opinion


(Updated: Thursday, January 10, 2008 8:39 AM CST)
Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene

Last Wednesday afternoon, Mark Fuller, the United States District Court judge who presided at the Don Siegelman trial, made his second attempt to satisfy the U. S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta concerning his decision not to release the former governor on bond pending appeal.

The only reason Fuller initially gave the court after its first request last Sep. 27 was that Siegelman was not likely to be successful in his appeal.

*
That apparently wasn’t good enough for the court so on Nov. 7 the judges told Fuller again to “promptly” give them additional reasons why Siegelman should not be released on bond pending appeal. He didn’t give them a whole lot more this time in a 30-page opinion, which was basically a replay of his initial reasoning.

When his reply was made public Wednesday it had been 57 days since the second request from the 11th Circuit was received at the federal courthouse in Montgomery and over three months since the appellate court first told him to “promptly” give the court additional reasons.

http://www.hartselleenquirer.com/articles/2008/01/16/opinion/oped5.txt

[EFerrari]

15. Kick

[mod mom]

16. Election night 2002: “suspicious vote tabulations”

The changing of the guards: Bay Minette, election night


By Steve McConnell
Staff Reporter
[e-mail]
(Created: Friday, July 20, 2007 10:03 AM CDT)



Nearly five years later, the specter of the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial election lives on.

Republican Bob Riley edged out a narrow victory over incumbent Democrat Don Siegelman, but a midnight vote recount in Baldwin County, giving Riley the edge, stirred a firestorm controversy that still receives national attention to this day.   

A recent New York Times editorial called into question “suspicious vote tabulations” that may have occurred at the Sheriff’s department in Bay Minette – the county seat - shortly after 11 p.m., the eve of election day, Nov. 5, 2002.

And, Time Magazine published an article entitled “Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor” by Adam Zagorin which touched on a controversial computer glitch: “Though Republican Riley…initially found himself behind by several thousand votes, he had pulled ahead at the last minute when disputed ballots were tallied in his favor.”

Glynn Wilson, a former Christian Science Monitor correspondent who now publishes and writes for his news site locustfork.net, posted a piece in June stating that Dan Gans - Riley’s chief of staff during the would-be governor’s time as a U.S. Representative for Alabama’s 3rd District – electronically changed the results, giving a razor thin edge to Riley, who went on to win the state by 3,120 votes.

-snip

http://baldwincountynow.com/articles/2007/07/25/local_news/doc469fbb5bd2a7f444039407.txt

Selective Justice in Alabama?
Thursday, Oct. 04, 2007By ADAM ZAGORIN
-snip

The case of Don Siegelman, the Democratic former Governor of Alabama who was convicted last year on corruption charges, has become a flash point in the debate over the politicization of the Bush Administration's Justice Department. Forty-four former state attorneys general — Republicans and Democrats — have cited "irregularities" in the investigation and prosecution, saying they "call into question the basic fairness that is the linchpin of our system of justice." The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's office strongly deny that politics played any part in Siegelman's prosecution. They say the former Governor, who recently began serving the first months of his more than seven-year sentence, got exactly what he deserved. But Justice officials have refused to turn over documentation on the case requested by the House Judiciary Committee, which scheduled a hearing on Siegelman's prosecution for Oct. 11.
Now TIME has obtained sensitive portions of the requested materials, including FBI and state investigative records that lay out some of Young's testimony. The information provided by the landfill developer was central to roughly half the 32 counts that Siegelman faced for allegedly accepting campaign contributions, money and gifts in exchange for official favors. (Siegelman was acquitted on 25 of those counts and convicted on seven. Young pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges and, in recognition of his cooperation with the government, received a short two-year sentence and fine.) But what Young had to say about Sessions, Pryor and other high-profile Alabama Republicans was even more remarkable for the simple fact that much of it had never before come to light.
The Young transcripts will probably add fuel to charges that the Bush Administration pursued selective justice in Alabama. Leura Canary, the U.S. Attorney whose office drove Siegelman's prosecution, is married to Bill Canary, Alabama's most prominent political operative and a longtime friend of Karl Rove's. In May an Alabama lawyer and Republican activist named Dana Jill Simpson gave a notarized statement that she heard Canary say Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. Attorneys. Bill Canary called her charge "outrageous," and other alleged participants in the phone conversation issued similar denials. (The White House declined to comment, citing Siegelman's pending appeal.) But last month Simpson testified behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee. Sources tell TIME that, under penalty of perjury, she repeated her allegations about Canary and Rove.
-snip
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1668220-1,00.html

[EFerrari]

22. Did they have Op Scan there, mod mom? n/t

[flashl]

17. K&R n/t

[librechik]

18. Get that Rove! Arrest him try him and send him to jail!

if we allow this crap in this country...

oh never mind. We do allow this crap, abundantly. We just aren't the America I know and respect anymore.

:cry:

[EFerrari]

21. That's what I feel most of the time. Disbelief.

Drop him a note if you can. It must be hard to be in the custody of these felons.

[femrap]

19. I was listening to Air America this past week....

and Siegelman's case was being discussed. He is being moved from prison to prison so the Press (or anyone else for that matter) cannot get to him.

Just like the old Soviet Union...I guess we're lucky we don't have a Siberia. Or maybe we do up in Alaska???

[EFerrari]

20. It's hard to believe what this country has become.

:kick:

[femrap]

23. I keep hoping I'll wake up from this nightmare....nt

[EFerrari]

24. Thanks for the kicks, femrap. I appreciate them. n/t