Ex-governor says he was target of Republican plot

[cal04]

The Alabama Democrat, fighting a 30-year sentence, and his supporters contend that his prosecution was a political strategy led by Karl Rove.

As Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama, goes before a federal judge today to fight a recommended 30-year prison sentence, he's telling anyone who'll listen that his prosecution was engineered by White House strategist Karl Rove.

It may be a long shot as a legal argument, but at least one influential Republican and a number of Democrats are questioning whether politics may have played a role in the case.

(snip)
And the bribery charge on which he was convicted did not involve pocketing money personally, but rather persuading a rich business executive to put $500,000 into a campaign for a state lottery to support education.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-siegelman26jun26,1,3489857.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=true

more on this at TPM
Siegelman maintains his innocence and says the prosecution stemmed from a politically-motivated vendetta by Republicans. A Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson, attested to this possibility in a sworn affidavit implicating Karl Rove in pushing the Justice Department to bring a case against Siegelman.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003527.php#more