More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case (Siegelman)

[kpete]

Source: TIME Magazine

More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case
By Adam Zagorin/Washington Friday, Nov. 14, 2008
Don Siegelman
Butch Dill / AP

Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years of controversy at the Bush Justice Department. Now new documents highlight alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case, including what appears to be extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury.

The documents, obtained by TIME, include internal prosecution e-mails given to the Justice Department and Congress by a whistle-blower during the last 18 months. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which investigated the Siegelman case as part of a broader inquiry into alleged political interference in the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys by the Bush Justice Department, last week sent an eight-page letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey citing the new material.

Conyers says the evidence raises "serious questions" about the U.S. Attorney in the Siegelman case, who, documents show, continued to involve herself in the politically charged prosecution long after she had publicly withdrawn to avoid an alleged conflict of interest relating to her husband, a top GOP operative and close associate of Bush adviser Karl Rove. Conyers' letter also cites evidence of numerous contacts between jurors and members of the Siegelman prosecution team that were never disclosed to the trial judge or defense counsel.

The letter to Mukasey is a signal that Democrats intend to probe what critics call the "dark side" of the Bush Administration even after it leaves office, according to congressional sources. Besides the Siegelman prosecution, such investigations could focus on the authorization of harsh interrogation methods, and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of U.S. attorneys.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1858991,00.html

[seafan]

1. Karl Rove's days are numbered. Unleash the hounds.

More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case

By Adam Zagorin/Washington
Nov. 14, 2008



Don Siegelman
Butch Dill / AP

.....

Siegelman was released on bail earlier this year after a Federal court ruled that his appeal raises "substantial questions." But the issue that turned the case into a national controversy was the allegation of political bias. Critics, including a bipartisan group of 52 state attorneys general, have raised numerous questions, including the allegation that Siegelman was prosecuted at the insistence of Bush-appointed officials at the Justice Department, and of Leura G. Canary, a U.S. Attorney in Montgomery whose husband was Alabama's top Republican operative and who had for years worked closely with Rove.

.....

But new documents furnished by DoJ staffer Tamarah T. Grimes tell a different story. A legal aide who worked in the Montgomery office that prosecuted Siegelman, Grimes first submitted her documents to DoJ watchdogs in 2007, and now finds herself in an employment dispute that could result in her dismissal. Grimes' lawyer had no comment.
The documents — whose authenticity is not in dispute — include e-mails written by Canary, long after her recusal, offering legal advice to subordinates handling the case. At the time Canary wrote the e-mails, her husband — Alabama GOP operative William J. Canary — was a vocal booster of the state's Republican governor, Bob Riley, who had defeated Siegelman for the office and against whom Siegelman was preparing to run again. Canary also received tens of thousands of dollars in fees from other political opponents of Siegelman.

In one of Canary's e-mails, dated September 19, 2005, she forwards senior prosecutors on the Siegelman case a three-page political commentary by Siegelman. Canary highlighted a single passage which, she told her subordinates, "Ya'll need to read, because he refers to a 'survey' which allegedly shows that 67% of Alabamans believe the investigation of him to be politically motivated." Canary then suggests: "Perhaps (this is) grounds not to let (Siegelman) discuss court activities in the media!"

.....

Grimes last year also gave DoJ additional e-mails detailing previously undisclosed contacts between prosecutors and members of the Siegelman jury. In nine days of deliberation, jurors twice told the judge they were deadlocked and could not reach a decision. After the panel finally delivered a conviction, allegations emerged that jurors had discussed the case in e-mails among themselves and downloaded Internet material — serious breaches which could have invalidated the verdict. But the trial judge ruled that the jurors' alleged misconduct was harmless.

.....

The DoJ conducted its own inquiry into some of Grimes' claims, and wrote a report dismissing them as inconsequential. But the report shows that investigators did not question U.S. marshals or jurors who had allegedly been in touch with the prosecution.
A key prosecution e-mail describes how jurors repeatedly contacted the government's legal team during the trial to express, among other things, one juror's romantic interest in a member of the prosecution team. "The jurors kept sending out messages" via U.S. marshals, the e-mail says, identifying a particular juror as "very interested" in a person who had sat at the prosecution table in court. The same juror was later described reaching out to members of the prosecution team for personal advice about her career and educational plans. Conyers commented that the "risk of (jury) bias ... is obvious".

.....

[Sanity Claws]

2. These are truly very very serious claims

There should be absolutely no contact between the prosecutor and jurors.Everyone in the U.S. Attorney's Office in that district who had anything to do with the case should be disbarred.

[BayjanDem]

3. Start LOCKING

these mofo's UP.:party:

[surrealAmerican]

27. Exactly. Somebody should be going to jail over this.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. 'the "dark side" of the Bush Administration...'

There's a light side?

[groovedaddy]

7. the only "light side" I see is January 20th, 2009, when their asses are out of

the White House!

[gratuitous]

5. Can't we just let bygones be bygones?

Really, isn't this just looking backwards to the past when we should be looking forward to the future? Gosh, you libruls just can't let anything go, can you? You're just all so mean and vindictive. Oh, and cowards. Almost forgot to say cowards. I hope the judges don't mark me down for that.

/Palin

[Kurovski]

30. We're like Republicans now.

Hard on crime. GRRRrrr.

[Roland99]

6. Is Conyers going to do something besides pay lip service?

[midnight]

39. I'm just very happy they didn't cover up this story. John Conyers

giving attention to this case is very encouraging.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. K&R!

[W T F]

9. Don't get too giddy about Rove going to jail........

You just know that Bush will be granting pardons before he leaves office just like his Pappy did for the Iran Contra criminals.

[eagertolearn]

11. Can he pardon him before he is prosecuted?

[Hand]

16. Yes--Ford did exactly that for Nixon

And Poppy Bush (who's a shit, by the way, and NOT a nice, gentle man, contrary to revisionist history) did it for a whole slew of his criminal gang.

[Festivito]

13. Can we reverse those pardons.

A new president could it seems. Certainly with consent of Congress.

No double jeopardy since they have not yet been tried.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

25. It's absolute

Fuckface can do whatever he wants as he tiptoes out of 1600 PA Ave., NW. The power of a President to issue pardons is absolute.

And no one can do a thing about it.

[barbtries]

37. not if he's

being impeached. one can dream.

[Festivito]

38. Then is not the power of a new president absolute? /nt

[ooglymoogly]

10. Blanket pardons....poof ...

I disparately wish this story had legs that could not be chopped off. kr

[DemoTex]

12. BartCop's great idea regarding Bu$h blanket pardons:

If the Democrats had any brains (Should I even bother to finish this sentence?) they would pre-warn Bush not to pardon all the crooks like his Daddy did to hide his mega-crimes.

If they had any brains, they'd make a big public issue about this. If they warn him in the media - and he does it anyway - they could and should make the case that Republicans can't be trusted with power because they always pardon their crooked friends to bury the truth.

The Democrats could also threaten to take Bush's and Reagan's name off every building, airport, bridge and whatever else because if they have to bury the evidence of their crimes, how can their names be worthy of memorializing on public buildings?

Of course, Democrats would never do anything like this because they're sacless weenies.

They continue to play patty cake in a hardball, dog-eat-dog world.

http://www.bartcop.com/

Start warning Bu$hco now about blanket pardons. Get the word out. Warn the peeps so that the biggest outrage yet to come won't be a total blind-side haymaker.

[blm]

19. Those pardons covered SOME matters for Poppy Bush, but there were still plenty more to pursue, but,

instead, many of those outstanding matters in IranContra and BCCI were deep-sixed in the next administration. And IranContra should have been RE-OPENED after CIA drugrunning story came out in 1996.

Bartcop is right to an extent, but, he has a twisted way of assessing blame - see, in MY book it takes cowardice to GIVE IN to Poppy Bush and side with his secrecy and privilege. I believe it takes COURAGE to investigate and expose Bush and his powerful cronies.

Bartcop believes it was OK for Clinton to play ball with GHWBush and his cronies because he thinks it kept Clinton alive and in power. What good is power if you HAVE to use it to continue to protect the fascist agenda for Poppy Bush and his cronies?

Not surprisingly, Robert Parry disagrees with Bartcop, too.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[Tangerine LaBamba]

26. HA! That's funny

Talk about toothless threats. It's worthless, this kind of tactic. Fuckface looks at it and laughs, as do I. What are you going to do? His pardon power is absolute. Y'all can just sit on it and rotate.

All the outrage in the world doesn't change that, and no one should be able to overrule it. T

[merh]

15. In this instance, I'd have no qualms with blanket pardons if they included those

illegally convicted by the corrupt bastards. :mad:

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Take away their licenses to practice law. Careers...poof.

If they have been pardoned, they can be compelled to testify and if they lie, they go to jail.

[Duppers]

36. BINGO!

Unless bush's pardon can also cover perjury?

[Acadia Blue]

14. The old south, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are all stuck

in the past, but there is hope as about 30 percent in each of these states voted for Obama
So 3 out of 10 southerners are not really stupid.
I live in one of these fascist backwaters of the USA. I wish I could move.

[Gregorian]

17. Can I just say- Mumia Abu Jamal, Troy Davis, et cetera.

Look, this country needs a facelift.

[Patiod]

18. Mumia is NOT a good case to hang one's hat on

I am about as anti-death penalty as they come, and he is NOT the case to be holding up as a reason to get rid of the death penalty. Plenty of cases of unjustly convicted. The people I know in the Philadelphia-area anti-death penalty community (for instance, the Quakers) are not enthusiastic about getting any kind of pardon for Abu Jamal.
Kill him? No.
Free him? No, either.

[Overseas]

21. K&R for more evidence of Republican ethics deficit.

And more reasons to prosecute those lawbreakers and constitution shredders.

[road2000]

22. I certainly care about pursuing 'thug crooks,

but I'd love to see Don Siegelman vindicated and his reputation restored first.

Then go after the bastards with a vengeance.

[sasquatch]

23. Man these guys need to spend some time in some ass raping hellhole prison

Or face the business end of a .45 caliber or a sawed off 12 gauge.

[barbtries]

24. i want everything

brought to light, all of it. before i die. i'm 53 years old; what do you think my chances are? i want justice for siegelman, plame, all the dead soldiers and all the dead innocents. in my lifetime, and my hopes are not high.

[Kurovski]

28. George's parents are begging for the same thing. Everything!

Who would deny these adorable oldsters?

[sarah FAILIN]

29. When his trial was going on, he had a campaign underway

We were all surprised to find out he was found guilty.

[kpete]

31. You can read emails here:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/files/28/files//2008/11/081107-enclosures_letter_to_ag.pdf

[Kurovski]

32. Thanks, kpete.

I hope you're doing well these days.

You're a DU treasure, too be sure.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[gmpierce]

34. We already know, Bush doctrine trumps the constitution...

It won't happen - because Democrats are way too nice (or too gutless) - but in theory Obama is now able to declare a large number of loyal Bushies to be "enemy combatants".

Then let them prove that they are not. Oops!

[pleah]

35. K&R