Siegelman judge's firm got $18 million contract

[L. Coyote]

Siegelman judge's firm got $18 million contract
Monday, January 21, 2008 - Scott Horton - http://www.al.com/news/independent/index.ssf?/base/columnists/120091051477000.xml


The story out of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse in Montgomery never seems to change. It is a chronicle of abusive conduct by a federal judge who treats his judicial duties with the same level of contempt he retains for the concept of justice itself. His name is Mark Everett Fuller, and according to the sworn account of a Republican operative, testifying before Congress, he was handpicked to manage a courtroom drama to destroy Governor, Don Siegelman, and to send him off to prison, post-haste. And that's exactly what he did.

Fuller denied without explanation the completely routine motion that Siegelman made to be let free on appeal. When the Court of Appeals directed him to state his reasons, he refused. They then directed him a second time to do so. He waited two months after the second order (and over three months after the original order) before acting, waiting until the Associated Press had published a major article bringing public attention to focus on the gross irregularities which marked his handling of the case and until Siegelman's lawyers made an emergency motion to the Court of Appeals to act. Then, suddenly, he released a 30-page opinion.

That opinion, which I have examined and shared with several of my lawyer and legal academic colleagues, is farcical, the sort of thing that any judge would be ashamed to allow see the light of day. The one sensible thing that Judge Fuller did was mark it "not for publication," for indeed, why would he want anyone to read it? It reflects a third-rate legal mind ..........

.............

[EFerrari]

1. Does CREW only work in D.C.? Because this seems to be

right up their alley.

[L. Coyote]

9. Ethics in Washington are involved here, albeit allegedly in an affidavit.

But, Time, Sixty Minutes, Scott Horton at Harpers, and TPM are already all over this one.

[EFerrari]

10. That's different, though. I'm glad they are but, their stake is readership

not outcome.

[TacticalPeek]

2. This link worked better for me:

http://www.al.com/opinion/independent/index.ssf?/base/columnists/120091051477000.xml&coll=4

And thanks for the info.

:patriot:

[Supersedeas]

11. thanks for the link

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I just find this story astounding.

It's first rate thuggery and goonery at the federal judgeship level. If it were anywhere else but Alabama, I would question if the judge had a valid reason, but 30 pages of third-rate material, well that says it all, doesn't it? This was a legal hit job.

[LizW]

14. Anywhere but Alabama?

Thanks for the stereotype. :mad:

[EFerrari]

4. Kick

[L. Coyote]

20. ..

[bleever]

5. K&R.

Free Don Siegelman.

[mod mom]

6. More on Fuller from Harpers:

Harpers: The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller:

The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller

BY
Scott Horton
PUBLISHED
August 6, 2007

For the last week, we’ve been examining the role played by Judge Mark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we examine a post-trial motion, filed in April 2007, asking Fuller to recuse himself based on his extensive private business interests, which turn very heavily on contracts with the United States Government, including the Department of Justice.

The recusal motion rested upon details about Fuller’s personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fuller’s recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fuller’s total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fuller’s income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.

In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.
?Annual report details, Doss Aviation, 2002

Doss Aviation, Inc. (motto: “Total Quality Service Isn’t Expensive, It’s Priceless”) and its subsidiary, Aureus International, hold contracts with a number of government agencies. Quoting from defense counsel’s motion for recusal (emphasis in the original):

Doss Aviation, Inc. has been awarded numerous federal military contracts from the United States government worth over $258,000,000, including but not limited to: An August 2002 contract with the Air Force for $30,474,875 for Helicopter Maintenance, a November 2003 contract with the Navy for $5,190,960 for aircraft refueling, a February 2006 contract with the Air Force for over $178,000,000 for training pilots and navigators, and a March 2006 contract with the Air Force for $4,990,541.28 for training at the United States Air Force Academy. The February 2006 contract with the Air Force for over $178,000,000 is for 10 ½ years, but is renewable from year to year . . .

-snip
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000762

[electprogdems]

7. Siegelman has been disappeared.. because he is a dem

Where is our legal system, our elected officials, the DNC, the DCCC, the liberal media, Keith, Randi, etal. Why is this not on the front page everyday. Does anyone even care?

Because he is a dem should remind all democrats everywhere that it could happen, at any moment to them.

[DCKit]

18. First they came for the Governors. I did not speak, because I am not a Governor. n/t

[stillcool]

8. Some history at this link:

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/specialreports/siegelman/

[L. Coyote]

12. Thanks. Check this one.

http://harpers.org/subjects/DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry

41 Blog Posts by Scott Horton

[Senator]

13. K&R

[flashl]

15. K&R n/t

[MagickMuffin]

16. From my research back in July

OMFG: Judge Mark E Fuller (Siegelman, Scrushy) GOV. Contracts: Training Saudis and Iranians to Fly
Posted by MagickMuffin in General Discussion
Fri Jul 20th 2007, 03:59 AM
I posted this in another thread, but decided it should have it's own thread.

I started doing research on Judge Fuller when I came upon this jewel. Apparently Fuller has been working deep within our government as well as being a judge, he has been training pilots...

http://www.locustfork.net/blog/jill_simpso... /...

I've just started reading it. Jill Simpson's Affidavit May Help Justice Prevail in the Siegelman, Scrushy Case
It also lifts the veil on how politics subverts justice and dirty tricks sully politics... Jill is the woman who had her house burned down.

This is a five part series. Goes into very detailed history of Fuller, Riley, and Rove....

There is also her affidavit at http://www.locustfork.net/blog/jill_simpso... /...

HOLY SHIT, check this out:

But eventually she put together such a revealing picture of a very rich federal judge who owned companies doing millions upon millions of dollars worth of business with the U.S. government, including making uniforms for the FBI and training Saudi and Iranian pilots - all while doing business with the Justice Department in eliminating Siegelman from politics forever.

Amazingly, Justice Fuller received a $178 million contract through a privately held company to train pilots and navigators for the U.S. government DURING THE SIEGELMAN, SCRUSY TRIAL. The company is called Doss Aviation of Alabama.

For another company called Aureus International that is listed as a division of Doss Aviation on the company's Website, Fuller is also listed as the majority owner, according to Ms. Simpson's research. The company does a comparable amount of business making uniforms for the U.S. military and the FBI, which played a major role in the investigation and prosecution of Siegelman and Scrushy.

Check out the GOV contracts he's getting:
http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/fpds.php?p... ...

2000 $11,736,314
2001 $9,993,378
2002 $8,376,574
2003 $11,333,293
2004 $23,828,933
2005 $26,854,524
2006 $25,184,67 *Note: FY 2006 does not include data from some agencies.


Does anyone have the same gut feeling about judge Fuller training Saudis and Iranians to fly?!?
Or that he makes uniforms for the FBI, and the US military???

Did judge Fuller's company train ANY of the Saudis that FLEW PLANES INTO BUILDINGS on SEPTEMBER 11, 2001????



EDIT: Data from 07.......

*Note: FY 2007 only includes up through second and part of third quarter.

Total transactions for fiscal year 2007: 39

Total funding (within this search) for the year: $28,445,330


Original thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1384629

[bluesmail]

17. K & R

"third rate legal mind".

[blm]

19. This story should be FRONT PAGE NEWS across the country.

In a country with a real press corps, anyway.

[L. Coyote]

21. One more try, Will it Float?

[L. Coyote]

22. When is a Prosecution Political?

When is a Prosecution Political?
Scott Horton - February 7, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002330

Once a year, in January, the U.S. Government asks me to give a day-long presentation to Foreign Service Officers, FBI agents and Justice Department officials on the legal systems of the post-Soviet world to help prepare them for a posting overseas in nations with a legal system that will certainly seem unfamiliar to them. For several years I have included in this, at the request of the MLAT and legal attachés (that is, Justice Department officials who will be liaisons with law enforcement officials in the countries) and the State Department human rights officers, a section entitled “How to Spot a Political Prosecution.”

In the nations of the former Soviet Union, of course, political prosecutions are rampant. This goes back to the Imperial era, but it also has its doctrinal anchoring in Lenin’s attitude about justice. For the Bolsheviks, the idea of neutral and dispassionate justice is all a bunch of sentimental liberal hogwash. As every good Communist knows, justice is a tool of the class and of the party. It is used to bolster the party and its political control over the state. Individuals may therefore be prosecuted because they presented a threat to the rule of the party, or simply because it is politically expedient to do so. The trial of the great poet Joseph Brodsky, from which I quoted yesterday, is a paradigm case which I used to teach in some of my seminars. With the collapse of communism and the adoption of liberal democratic models across the region, however, these doctrinal positions were rejected. Of course, some traditions are slow to die. And one of the problems faced by American justice officials is the proliferation of requests for assistance in connection with cases that look suspiciously like political persecution. What are the flashpoints to examine in making a determination of whether a case is politically motivated?

It now strikes me that this mode of analysis has some obvious relevance to things going on in the United States. But here are the questions I present for consideration by American Justice officials trying to grapple with the question in a foreign setting:

1.

Identity of the Subject. Is the subject an opposition political figure of some sort? Is he a member of an ethnic or religious minority .

............

[annabanana]

23. kicked. . Too late to rec. . . . n/t

[mod mom]

24. Harpers: The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller (judge overseeing the case)

The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED August 6, 2007
For the last week, we’ve been examining the role played by JudgeMark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we examine a post-trial motion, filed in April 2007, asking Fuller to recuse himself based on his extensive private business interests, which turn very heavily on contracts with the United States Government, including the Department of Justice.

The recusal motion rested upon details about Fuller’s personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fuller’s recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fuller’s total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fuller’s income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.

In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.

Doss Aviation, Inc. (motto: “Total Quality Service Isn’t Expensive, It’s Priceless”) and its subsidiary, Aureus International, hold contracts with a number of government agencies. Quoting from defense counsel’s motion for recusal (emphasis in the original):

Doss Aviation, Inc. has been awarded numerous federal military contracts from the United States government worth over $258,000,000, including but not limited to: An August 2002 contract with the Air Force for $30,474,875 for Helicopter Maintenance, a November 2003 contract with the Navy for $5,190,960 for aircraft refueling, a February 2006 contract with the Air Force for over $178,000,000 for training pilots and navigators, and a March 2006 contract with the Air Force for $4,990,541.28 for training at the United States Air Force Academy. The February 2006 contract with the Air Force for over $178,000,000 is for 10 ½ years, but is renewable from year to year . . .

An Enterprise Ledger article dated April 3, 2005, states that “FBI agents, military and civilian pilots and medical professionals all over the world wear (Aureus International) products which are cut, sewn, inspected, bagged and shipped from its home in Enterprise.”

Doss Aviation and its subsidiaries also held contracts with the FBI. This is problematic when one considers that FBI agents were present at Siegelman’s trial, and that Fuller took the extraordinary step of inviting them to sit at counsel’s table throughout trial. Moreover, while the case was pending, Doss Aviation received a $178 million contract from the federal government.


-snip

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000762