Corruption in a U.S. Attorney’s Office

[L. Coyote]

Corruption in a U.S. Attorney’s Office
Feb 10, 2008 by Scott Horton - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002353


One of Weimar Germany’s great satirists, Kurt Tucholsky, once offered some very pointed analysis. “If you want to judge the internal qualities of any society,” he said, “I give you this test. How do they treat the political opposition? ...........

[ursi]

1. glad this is becoming more and more visible to the public eye ...

what a horribly disgusting story ...

[Mojorabbit]

2. Thanks for posting this

fascinating article. This is real journalism.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. k&r....

[varkam]

4. K&R - It doesn't exactly do well for our credibility when one of the institutions...

supposed to safeguard the notion of justice in this country is turned into a political puppet that conducts itself along ideological lines.

These be some strange days, indeed.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Some cherry picking to pique the interest of others...

"And now the dark underside of this case has bubbled to the surface. After a trial on corruption charges against White ended in a conviction, White moved to have the verdict set aside. His arguments were fairly technical. He had previously sought a change of venue on the grounds that he couldn’t get a fair trial in Birmingham because of the highly tendentious press coverage. Essentially, he was talking about the Birmingham News’s incendiary and unbalanced coverage of his case (of course, you won’t read a word about this or indeed any aspect of the case which is favorable to White in the Birmingham News). The judge moved the case to a different district, but White argued it should have been moved to a different division. A very fine point.

Nevertheless, the Northern District’s Chief Judge, U.W. Clemon, granted the motion and is referring the matter for a new trial. All that seems pretty mundane. But wait a minute. Again, I made the mistake of relying on the Birmingham News’s reporting in following the case, and again the News’s coverage had been carefully sanitized to remove some things of ultimate significance. On a tip from some lawyers I went in and looked at the court files. I discovered that in addition to the entirely technical motion reported in the News, the defendant had also filed a motion to dismiss for selective prosecution, supported with an affidavit. And although the judge’s order dealt with the case on the technical prong, and noted that a mere affidavit was not enough to make out a case for selective prosecution, he was extremely troubled by what he read. The allegations reflected corrupt dealings inside the office of U.S. Attorneys Alice Martin and Leura Canary. And much of it had to do with the prosecution of former Governor Don Siegelman.

Here’s a passage from an affidavit submitted by Commissioner White’s wife Judy in support of the motion, which Judge Clemon quotes from extensively. On behalf of the Siegelman prosecution, federal agents repeatedly and insistently told my husband that they ‘needed’ for meeting to have occurred at the particular and specific date, and that they wanted him to testify that it did. My husband maintained that he could not do so, as he did not know when the meeting occurred. They even attempted to persuade him that the meeting ‘could have’ taken place on the date they stated, and reminded him that he had no calendar saying that it did not.

The whole of Mrs. White’s affidavit can be read here. Mrs. White is describing the cajoling of federal agents, including an individual named Long, who were working under the direction of Louis Franklin, the prosecutor of the Siegelman case. Franklin is the head of the criminal division for U.S. Attorney Leura Canary."

more > http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002353

[aquart]

6. The "cajoling" matters.

I remember being wanted as a witness. Like White, I couldn't remember the most important fact. For him, a date. For me, a name. The NY prosecutors didn't use me because I couldn't be sure. With White, the federal attorneys in Alabama didn't care. They wanted him to say it anyway.

That. Is. Wrong.

[salin]

7. Harper's is doing a great service in following this (these) stories...

Almost makes one wonder if there is going to be an Enron/Arthur Andersonesque document deletion/shredding binge at the DOJ between Nov 2008 and Jan 2009.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. kick for the midday crowd. Thanks L. Coyote, you have been

diligent at keeping us on top of this issue.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. ...

:kick: