Siegelman Committed No Crime... There Was No Bribe

[Hissyspit]

No quid pro quo. The below is not news to me and to many if not most DUers, but is perhaps to other people - it is easy to forget the details - and thus bears repeating. Via Mark Crispin Miller:

Testimony Overlooked? Former Head of Siegelman's Transition Team clears Siegelman: "There was no bribe"
by KatieSF

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Testimony-Overlooked--For-by-KatieSF-090520-416.html

Alabama Republican Elmer Harris, the former head of Siegelman's transition team and former CEO of Alabama Power, says in a recent interview with 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley that former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman didn't accept a bribe. In fact, he states: "There was no bribe."

Harris explained that he never testified because no one had ever asked him to--not the DOJ, not the US Attorneys, NO ONE. He says his testimony would have cleared Siegelman. Check out Harris' brief 60 second interview which I stumbled upon the 60 Minutes website (though it never aired on 60 Minutes, only on CBS Evening News, April 6th) :

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3996872n%3fsource=search_video

Most recently (April 7), CBS most aired an update on the CBS Evening News an update, with 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley interviewing Siegelman:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3998404n%3fsource=search_video

If you missed the original 60 Minutes segment that was finally aired on February 24th (same night as the Academy Award Oscars), go to:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3870545n%3fsource=search_video

The Court of Appeals turned down Siegelman's appeal May 15th and the DOJ prosecutors have announced they are planning on nearly tripling the sentence from 7 years to almost 21 years.
http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/44788997.html

Siegelman faces resentencing and returning to federal prison unless enough pressure can be put on Eric Holder's DOJ to throw out this case.

So we need your help.

Please call the White House and leave a comment: 202-456-1111 (or toll-free: 800-833-6354)

OR call Eric Holder's office at 202-353-155, and/or email the DOJ: [e-mail]

Lastly corruption appears to abound in this case: namely Judge Fuller should recuse himself because he had an ax to grind against Siegelman and US Attorney Leura Canary, who is married to Alabama Republican Operative and Kingmaker Bill Canary, should be removed as a US Attorney since the demands to triple the sentencing are coming from her office:

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/05/judge-in-siegelman-case-faces-renewed.html

"Meanwhile, a new investigation shows that Doss Aviation, with Judge Fuller as majority owner, has been awarded more than $300 million in federal contracts since Fuller began presiding over the Siegelman case in 2005."

For more information see Thom Hartmann's interview with Siegelman:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/interview-with-former-ala_b_99338.html

Hartmann: ... And, in fact, if I understand this correctly, you were being prosecuted by a woman whose husband was the campaign manager for the Republican who ran against you for governor and in the middle of the night in one county because of a voting machine malfunction after the election had apparently already been called in your favor, suddenly in the middle of the night, when there were nobody except Republicans standing around, they discovered a couple thousand more votes, and said: "Oh, yeah, no, no! Don Siegelman actually lost." Do I have that right?

DS: You have it right. They electronically shifted votes from my column to my Republican opponent's column.

TH: To Bob Riley's column.

DS: I believe, yes, to Bob Riley's column. And oddly enough, it didn't effect a single down-ballot race. They took five thousand or six thousand votes of mine and shifted it over to Bob Riley, and when they counted everybody else's votes, the shift was at the top which, logically, would have made a difference at the bottom...


RELATED:

Judge in Siegelman Case Faces Renewed Impeachment Effort

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5675490


Andrew Krieg: Siegelman Deserves New Trial Because of Judge's 'Grudge,' Evidence Shows

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/siegelman-deserves-new-tr_b_201455.html

Andrew Kreig

DC journalist and attorney
Posted: May 15, 2009 05:02 PM

Siegelman Deserves New Trial Because of Judge's 'Grudge,' Evidence Shows

The Alabama federal judge who presided over the 2006 corruption trial of the state's former governor holds a grudge against the defendant for helping to expose the judge's own alleged corruption six years ago. Former Gov. Don Siegelman therefore deserves a new trial with an unbiased judge ─ not one whose privately owned company, Doss Aviation, has been enriched by the Bush administration's award of $300 million in contracts since 2006, making the judge millions in non-judicial income.

These are the opinions of Missouri attorney Paul B. Weeks, who is speaking out publicly for the first time since his effort in 2003 to obtain the impeachment of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller of Montgomery on Doss Aviation-related allegations.


Siegelman Judge Committed Fraud on the Court

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/05/judge-in-siegelman-case-faces-renewed.html

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009

Judge in Siegelman Case Faces Renewed Impeachment Effort

Mark Fuller, the Alabama federal judge who oversaw the Don Siegelman case, is facing a renewed impeachment effort amid allegations that he tried to defraud a state pension system and earned millions of dollars from military contracts during the Bush administration.

Missouri attorney Paul Benton Weeks said Fuller punished Siegelman in retaliation for an investigation Weeks conducted in 2003 that revealed extensive financial wrongdoing in two Alabama counties where Fuller had served as district attorney. A Siegelman appointee assisted in the investigation, which showed that Fuller engaged in criminal behavior before being appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush, Weeks said.

Meanwhile, a new investigation shows that Doss Aviation, with Fuller as majority owner, has been awarded more than $300 million in federal contracts since Fuller began presiding over the Siegelman case in 2005.

The latest on the Siegelman case comes from an investigative report at Huffington Post by veteran attorney and journalist Andrew Kreig, who currently is a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.

Weeks and Kreig will conduct a media teleconference at 10 a.m., Eastern time, on Monday (5/18). A Department of Justice spokesman and Judge Fuller have been invited to participate in the teleconference. Kreig sent interview requests to Fuller via U.S. mail and telephone. He has received no response.


76 Former State AGs Urge Review of Siegelman Case

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5511124

April 22, 2009
The New York Times
Review of Governor's Conviction Sought

By JOHN SCHWARTZ and CHARLIE SAVAGE

Less than a month after the Justice Department asked a judge to drop the case against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of prosecutorial misconduct, 75 former state attorneys general from both parties have urged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to conduct a similar investigation of the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, who was convicted nearly three years ago on bribery and corruption charges.

In a letter to Mr. Holder, the attorneys general said Mr. Siegelman's defense lawyers had raised "gravely troublesome facts" about his prosecution that raise questions about the fairness and due process of the trial.

"We believe that if prosecutorial misconduct is found, as in the case of Senator Ted Stevens, then dismissal should follow in this case as well," the group said in the letter, which was organized by Robert Abrams, a former attorney general of New York.

Lawyers for Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, have long accused the Justice Department under President George W. Bush of conducting a politically motivated prosecution that they say was filled with irregularities, including a failure to turn over pertinent information to the defense team.

In the weeks since the Stevens prosecution was dropped over similar issues, Mr. Siegelman's team has made efforts to draw parallels between the two cases.
One of Mr. Siegelman's lawyers, Vincent F. Kilborn III, said in an interview from his office in Mobile, Ala., that at least three of the officials who have been accused of misconduct in the Stevens investigation have played a role in the Siegelman case, including Patty Merkamp Stemler, the chief of the appellate section of the criminal division at the Justice Department, who is being held in contempt in the Stevens case over documents demanded by the judge that were not produced.


The Permanent Republican Majority - Part One: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html


OpEdNews: Don Siegelman Has Fans Everywhere (A Phone Call To The White House)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5687944

May 19, 2009 at 19:28:28

Don Siegelman Has Fans Everywhere

by Marilyn Noyes

I called the White House Monday afternoon to advocate for removal of Leura Canary from her US attorney post in Alabama and to ask for our administration to pressure Mark Fuller to recuse himself from being the judge in Don Siegelman's re-sentencing. Of course we are really aiming to get Don exonerated and not go back to court or prison at all, but I think it's important to hit this one on both fronts. When I started to talk about Alice Martin's removal and that Leura Canary must go sooner rather than later, the woman I spoke to actually asked me if I was talking about the Don Siegelman case.


Larisa Alexandrovna on Obama DOJ Developments:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5649853

MORE AT LINKS

[tridim]

1. Speaking of which

What ever happened with Rove's testimony from Monday? I haven't heard a peep.

[Hissyspit]

2. He testified to the special prosecutor. Details not made public

Larisa Alexandrovna: Questions Prosectuor Dannehy Should Be Asking Mr. ROVE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5661492

AP: Prosecutor Ends Session With Rove

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3878984

[subterranean]

3. Doesn't a bribe have to involve some sort of personal gain?

Richard Scrushy donated $250,000 not to Siegelman, but to a lottery for funding education in Alabama, which Siegelman advocated. Siegelman then re-appointed Scrushy to a hospital board that he had served on under three previous governors.

If that's considered bribery, then every politician who ever gave an appointment to a major campaign donor should be convicted, along with anyone who accepted those appointments.