Ex-Democratic Governor fighting 30-year sentence says he was target of Rove plot

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Ex-governor says he was target of Republican plot
The Alabama Democrat, fighting a 30-year sentence, and his supporters contend that his prosecution was a political strategy led by Karl Rove.
By Tom Hamburger and David G. Savage, Times Staff Writers
June 26, 2007

MONTGOMERY, ALA. — 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.

All but a handful of more than 100 charges against the former governor were rejected, his defenders point out....

***

Siegelman's supporters argue that his popularity and his history of attracting both black and white voters — dating to 1998, when he was elected governor — made him a target for GOP political strategists and may have played a role in a long-running effort by the offices of Republican U.S. attorneys to bring him down....

***

After Siegelman became governor, a Rove protege, Bill Canary, helped lead the successful GOP effort to defeat him in 2002. Canary's wife, Leura, is a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney in Montgomery whose office won Siegelman's conviction....

This month another Republican activist, lawyer Dana Jill Simpson of Rainsville, Ala., filed a sworn statement saying that she was on a Republican campaign conference call in 2002 when she heard Bill Canary tell other campaign workers not to worry about Siegelman because Canary's "girls" and "Karl" would make sure the Justice Department pursued the Democrat so he was not a political threat in the future....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-siegelman26jun26,0,1102966.story?coll=la-home-nation

[Alexia Wheaton]

1. But Scooter Libby should be pardoned for lying?

:eyes:

[Blaze Diem]

2. Will a Rove-appointed Judge be Hearing this Case?

Anything with KKKarl's name attached should be suspect of manipulation.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Maybe they should touch base w/indicted Iowa State Senator (D)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=152x17324

...
<http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=... >

Lawyers for indicted state Sen. Matt McCoy want more information about how federal prosecutors decided to charge him with attempted extortion.

A grand jury in March found that McCoy, a Democrat who has represented parts of Des Moines' south and west sides since 1996, threatened two former business partners who later gave him roughly $2,000.

Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown told Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer on Tuesday that three lawyers have poured over the recorded conversations and "don't see the magic words" that would justify the charge. McCoy's trial is scheduled for July 30. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Brown said Vasquez apparently had his first contact with the FBI on Dec. 5, 2005. But FBI accounts of that interview contain no allegation that would match the Medicaid statement in McCoy's indictment.
...

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Good idea -- and I'm wondering if there are others. nt

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

4. Oh, my,...when at look at the crimes for which he was convicted,...

,...if the law were applied equally, the whole damn administration would be serving life sentences!!!

:wow:

[Robbien]

6. Telling a rich elite to give money in support of a state lottery

for that he is getting 30 years.

Libby being the right arm of Cheney in selling America down the drain got 30 months.

Pays not to be a Dem.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

14. Read closer. School budgets were dependent upon their lottery.

You know how Republicans tend to be: gambling's okay but taxes aren't. So, the compromise for financing public school systems is,...well,...state lotteries.

[L. Coyote]

26. Culture of Corruption Rules! Burns Alabama's first "New South" governor

Culture of Corruption Rules!
June 30, 2006 by Dafydd - http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2006/06

Former Gov. Don E. Siegelman of Alabama was convicted yesterday of bribery, according to the New York Times:

After twice telling a judge it was deadlocked, a federal jury on Thursday convicted former Gov. Don E. Siegelman and a former HealthSouth chief executive, Richard M. Scrushy, on charges that they conspired in a bribery scheme seven years ago. ......

At a news conference after the verdict Thursday, the acting United States attorney, Louis Franklin, praised the jurors for holding Mr. Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy "accountable for what they did." ..........

Yup, sounds good. Darned Republicans and their corrupt culture! Will their perfidy never cease? But still, there was that nagging feeling that it was a little odd ........

Having held most of the state's executive offices, Mr. Siegelman once cast himself as Alabama's first "New South" governor. Considered progressive, he was elected governor in 1998 on the promise to pay college tuition for Alabama students with an education lottery.

... the lottery was a huge bust ... a ballot initiative, the ... campaign cost at least $2 million... which Siegelman personally guaranteed. -- defeated,... by a counter-campaign by religious conservatives ... Siegelman found himself suddenly having to cought up a couple of million bucks......

[symbolman]

7. This poor bastard

has been railroaded by the very mechanism that Congress is screaming about ala Gonzales and a White House creation of Political Appointees in the DOJ.

Here is the FRUIT of that endevour, and on top of it his election, or the SELECTION of RILEY by COMPUTER FRAUD, was the TEMPLATE for how the right wing would DEFRAUD America (outside of the BUSH installation)..

If someone like WAXMAN or CONYERS was to speak up it would come in Very Handy, this guy has had it ALL Thrown at him, and WHERE the hell are the DEMOCRATS on this?

We've got the FILM, an interview with this poor sap, a Very NICE MAN. I don't believe a single Charge, and for more than one reason.

I was RAIL-ROADED in the same place. One of the most, if not THE, CORRUPT places in America.

My wife interviewed this poor man while I was enjoying the GrayBar Hotel's amenities for something I DID NOT COMMIT.

Thank god I didn't get thirty years for it, but if THEY say you get Thirty years, then THAT'S what you'll get, the hell with Evidence, or PROOF, or JUSTICE.

It's a terrible shame, and what's worse it that Congress is clueless. THIS is the PERFECT Case to be hauled before an Investigatory Committee, with a HOLD on him serving until it's all figured out and the RIGHT people are in jail.

Like that Traitorous PIG, KKKarl Rove, and his henchmen.

[King Coal]

8. What were you charged with, Symbol?

BTW, How did your surgery go?

[symbolman]

12. They bounced me between family court

and Criminal court with the same charge - a completely baseless OPINON by a savage Christian installed "lady" judge, who had no idea what the Cannons were. I couldn't ask for another Judge, and I had SIX lawyers. Some accepted the case for Free, all the way from Beverly Hills, the rest got a nice couple of hundred thousand dollars.

Took it all the way to the Supreme Court, who refused to hear it, and some of THOSE were installed by none other than KKKarl Rove.

The judge even ADMITTED that there was NO EVIDENCE, then sentenced me. It was pure hell, my wife was pregnant at the time, and I was on pain meds. While in the jail they kept keeping the meds from me, so I was literally jonesing all the time while laying on a concrete floor in LOCKDOWN (where they put those who are INSANE or KILL in Jail - I had NO priors, no violence on any record) watching them torture an insane man in the next cell, who was making animals out of his own shit, and then biting the heads off his "sculpture". The ex had been recording my conversations with my son for TEN YEARS, and finally had something that Only a Dirty Mind could have inferred to be of any consequence to my son. A recorded phone call from 2500 miles away.

Meanwhile my ex had BIT a boyfriend twice, been arrested more times than I could count, drove my kids drunk, two dui's in two weeks, and had a rap sheet the size of a phone book. Me? One DUI in College nearly 30 years ago. That's it.

A real danger to the community.

All I want to say, but I KNOW what that man is going through in a much smaller way. And THIS is how you see that what Rove does can PERSONALLY AFFECT PEOPLE. Nothing nebulous about it.

Evil, pure evil.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

18. Ohmygosh,...I don't know how you had the strength to get through that.

x( ",...nothing nebulous about it,..." The boss-hogs (dictators, big and small) still destroy a democratic nation every chance they get (my dad is one of them and he has the nerve to call me a "radical", good GOD :grr:).

Aweful period in your life. BUT YOU ARE STILL HERE!!! I'm so glad.:pals:

[symbolman]

21. Thanks :)

It was worse than I've even hinted at here, but no one wants to hear that kind of thing. But let it be known that the county jail in that part of Alabama has been compared to a South African prison, BY CONGRESS..

Yeah, thank god for my wife, and a book "We're all Doing Time" by Bo Lazoff, from the Foundation for Human Kindness. I found a half of the book in there, the rest had been used as TP, and it saved my mind :)

By the time I left, there were a bunch of guys yelling, "You tell them John Lennon, You TELL THEM what's going down in HERE!" (You get a nickname in jail, so that was mine, I loved it, really, about the only cool thing that happened)

I STILL think about how I SHOULD tell that story, in conjunction with Siegelman's story, Maybe BEFORE CONGRESS.

Any Lawyers out there that want to Bust some Corrupt Chops in that part of the World? We can take both Siegelman and my story in there, and we've both got a LOT to say..

That man DID NOTHING out of the ordinary. I shudder to think what he's going through.

Thanks so much for your concern, I'm still here, now I'm fighting the HMSA over health problems, wonder if I'll even live through this one.. guess what don't kill you.. makes you Strong :)

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Thanks for adding this info, symbolman. This is tragic. nt

[MissWaverly]

29. Believe you, Dana Simpson, the one that swore the affadavit

saying that politics was involved in his case, has had her car run off the road and her house burnt to the ground.
Nothing to see here, move along.

[L. Coyote]

10. Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances

An archived compilation thread on this topic, from June 1:

Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1023111

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Thank you, L.Coyote! nt

[symbolman]

13. Lay it on them L.Coyote!

He does great work :)

[L. Coyote]

17. Thanks. It is all one big party of corruption. They link like the web pages

The same actors keep popping up everywhere. It is important to see how this stuff repeats again and again.

Here is the latest compilation, focusing again on Missouri actors:

FITRAKIS: Ohio, the DOJ scandal and "Thor" - the god of voter suppression
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1159656

And here is a comiplation linking many of the compilations:

Yesterday was a GREAT DAY for Falwell TO DIE. Or, the Buffalo Jump to Hell.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x899312

DO contribute to these as they develop, please. Thanks to those who have.

[Blackhatjack]

15. The Harper's Article is chilling and scary beyond description...LINK

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.correntewire.com%2Frovian_justice_in_the_banana_republic_of_alabama

Justice in Alabama
DEPARTMENT No Comment BY Scott Horton PUBLISHED June 24, 2007

Excerpt:

The Siegelman prosecution was commenced as the result of a plan hatched between senior figures in the Alabama Republican Party and Karl Rove. This connection is not coincidental, because Rove was once fired by the first President Bush and then had to rehabilitate himself. Rove did this in spades, and the place where he worked his political magic was in Alabama. He put together a campaign to engineer the Alabama GOP’s capture of the state’s judicial machinery. It worked brilliantly. And Rove has retained tight connections with the Alabama GOP ever since. Rove and the Alabama GOP leaders set out to destroy Siegelman’s political career and thus smooth the path by which the Republican Party could secure and retain political control of the Alabama statehouse. It was crafted in such a way as to retard the ability of Democrats to raise money from campaign donors so that they might contest office in Alabama. Each of these purposes is “corrupt.” Key to this plan was the use of the machinery of the Department of Justice for its completion – involving the U.S. attorneys offices in Birmingham and Montgomery, and the Department of Justice in Washington. Rove was in a position to make this work and he did so.

The curtain was pulled back on this plan when Dana Jill Simpson, a Republican lawyer who previously worked on a campaign against Siegelman, decided to blow the whistle. Her affidavit described William Canary, a legendary figure in the Alabama GOP, bragging that “his girls” would take care of Siegelman. Canary’s wife is Leura Canary, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Alice Martin, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama is a close confidante of Canary’s. He referred repeatedly to “Karl,” assuring that “Karl” had worked things out with the Justice Department in Washington to assure a criminal investigation and prosecution of Siegelman. Canary is a close friend of Karl Rove,

The response to Simpson’s affidavit has been a series of brusque dismissive statements – all of them unsworn – from others who figured in the discussion and the federal prosecutor in the Siegelman case, who has now made a series of demonstrably false statements concerning the matter. She’s been smeared as “crazy” and as a “disgruntled contract bidder.” And something nastier: after her intention to speak became known, Simpson’s house was burned to the ground, and her car was driven off the road and totaled. Clearly, there are some very powerful people in Alabama who feel threatened. Her case starts to sound like a chapter out of John Grisham’s book The Pelican Brief. However, those who have dismissed Simpson are in for a very rude surprise. Her affidavit stands up on every point, and there is substantial evidence which will corroborate its details.

<snip>

And the more we dig into this case, the more irregularities mount. Let’s start with the charges against Siegelman. The main accusation is that he appointed HealthSouth’s scandal-ridden CEO to a state oversight board, and in exchange a donation was made to a not-for-profit education foundation which was supporting Siegelman’s efforts to secure a lottery to fund the state’s education system. You might very well ask what would be corrupt about this, and you would be right to ask. This is almost exactly the sort of accusation that the federal prosecutor in Milwaukee, faced with Rove’s threat to fire him, brought against Thompson – and that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals labeled as “preposterous.” And indeed, it’s the sort of thing that transpires in the American political environment every single day. For instance, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on a Donald Trump television program recently, and Trump made a payment of ten thousand dollars to help Schwarzenegger “retire his campaign debts.” Was that corrupt? Added to this is the fact that HealthSouth had no interest in anything before the oversight board in question, and its CEO had been appointed to the same board by three prior governors. This is corruption?

MORE

***************

Read the whole article and be afraid, very afraid of what a group of politicized prosecutors and political party officials can do without any kind of check and balance in place.

Just astounding!

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Thanks, Blackhatjack -- very scary! nt

[Blackhatjack]

19. after her intention to speak became known, Simpson’s house was burned, and her car was totalled...

If this was not enough, look at who they got to preside over the trial - a Republican with an financial interest in protecting the present Republican Administration.

[symbolman]

22. Wow!

Thanks for this, a great work.. I wondered what the hell the charges were anyway?! Like they said, this kind of thing goes on ALL DAY in the politicians realm.

RECOMMENDING!

[Blackhatjack]

23. This was a Republican who spoke out and had her house burned, car totalled...

THis one smells to high heaven, a handpicked Repub judge who had a financial interest that should have caused him to recuse himself.

And now the prosecution is asking for 30 YEARS incarceration!

And do not forget that the two major newspapers were in the prosecution, acting as mouthpieces for the corrupt officials.

This should be a movie.

[annabanana]

20. This thread neads some rec's. . . . n/t

[Blackhatjack]

24. K & R

[L. Coyote]

30. Likewise. K&R

[L. Coyote]

25. PAC Gives $300K to Riley, After Getting $50 Million State Contract = Jan. 2006.

Now this, the Rs are doing WHAT? Accepting huge contributions in exchange for huge state contracts?? The hypocricsy!!

==================
Friday, January 27, 2006
PAC Gives $300K to Riley, After Getting $50 Million State Contract
http://alelections.blogspot.com/2006/01/pac-gives-300k-to-riley-after-getting.html


Eddie Curran at the Mobile Register has a revelatory piece about Bob Riley's re-election fundraising. According to filings with the Sec of State, a PAC called Alabamians for Technology donated $300,000 in December to Riley's re-election campaign.

There doesn't seem to be any speculation that anything illegal took place, but there sure are a lot of unseemly details.

-- The PAC was formed, and largely bankrolled, by executives who benefited from a $50 million state contract.
-- The PAC was formed on Dec 16, 2005 and just three days later gave the $300K to Riley.
-- The PAC had taken $325K which means the $300K given to Riley accounts for over 92% of the PAC's monies.

[Elwood P Dowd]

27. They've also gone after the Turnham family.

Tim Turnham has already been charged. It is my understanding that he entered a plea and is cooperating with the US Attorney. The press keeps mentioning his brother Joe in their articles, but Joe has denied any involvement in the Turnham family business since the 1990s. Joe Turnham is Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, and lost a close congressional race to republican Mike Rogers in 2002. There were some strange voting patterns in that election. What else is new?

[L. Coyote]

28. Yeah, the vote difference was blamed on a lightning strike...

demobabe Sat Jun-02-07 wrote: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1023111#1026347

Yeah, the vote difference was blamed on a lightning strike...
...on a machine in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. Around 3,000 votes shifted from Siegelman to Riley. Few really odd things here:

1. The machine in question carried about 1,000 votes. Even if ALL 1,000 votes switched from Siegelman to Riley, you still don't have the number of votes for Riley to have won. Doesn't add up.

2. The totals on EVERY SINGLE other race in that election did not change. There was a ZERO difference. If there was a problem with one machine, this would cause the vote totals in ALL races to change. Lightning bolts don't target only one person.

3. The nature of the problem wasn't consistent with a power surge. Lightning bolts would not cause data to be manipulated. Destroyed an unusable is one possibility but not selective data corruption (once again, every race would be affected, not just Don Siegelman).

========================
It seems likely, that in the end, they still had to fix the election to put Riley in.

[cal04]

31. Questions Mount about Dem Governor Prosecution

Ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) is again questioning the motives and impartiality of the prosecutors who want to put him away for 30 years. And the prosecutors keep giving him good reason to.

Siegelman's sentencing hearing, which has extended into its second day today, has provoked his latest assertions.

His lawyers have also raised objections to prosecutors supporting their call for an extraordinarily tough sentence by using evidence connected to charges on which Siegelman was acquitted. Siegelman was charged with 32 counts, but acquitted of 25. According to the New York Times, Siegelman's lawyers have had it:

“The government is asking that he be penalized for every single thing he was charged with, whether he was acquitted or not,” said Susan James, a Siegelman lawyer. “The government drastically lost the case,” she said. “We strongly object to the court considering acquitted conduct.”

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003541.php

[L. Coyote]

32. KARL ROVE has a slippery non-denial of the accusation

This case is a real thorn for a host of operatives, including in the White House.

"Franklin used much stronger language to clear Rove, than Rove did himself. When one reporter got the chance to question the White House strategist on having a hand in the prosecution, he skirted answering by saying he knew nothing of the call. No one has accused Rove of being on the call described by Simpson, just that his name was mentioned. The White House has given an official "no comment" on the issue."

[DeepModem Mom]

33. Thanks, cal04! Link to NYT article, also --

Ex-Governor Says Conviction Was Political
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/us/27alabama.html


(Dana Mixer/Bloomberg News)
Don E. Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, arriving at court on Tuesday with his wife, Lori.

[L. Coyote]

34. NY TIMES: Ex-Governor Says Conviction Was Political

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/us/27alabama.html?em&ex=1183089600&en=9c08e4f5ab7e825f&ei=5087%0A

... as he emerged from court today, Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, tried to paint a bigger picture, saying he was a victim of Karl Rove, the senior political adviser in the White House.

“The origins of this case are political,” Mr. Siegelman said. “There’s no question that Karl Rove’s fingerprints are all over this case, from the inception.”

His words, in turn, have been fueled by an affidavit that seems to link his prosecution to high government circles, which has given the case a serious jolt. ...

The shakiness of the federal case against Mr. Siegelman had forced prosecutors to “adopt the garbage-can theory of RICO,” said G. Robert Blakey, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and former prosecutor, referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Professor Blakey suggested that the charges against Mr. Siegelman had been indiscriminate from the outset. ... “It’s the worst-drafted RICO I’ve ever seen,” said the professor, whose career at the Justice Department began in 1960. “You find as much trash as you can, then you dump it in.”

“The government is asking that he be penalized for every single thing he was charged with, whether he was acquitted or not,” said Susan James, a Siegelman lawyer. “The government drastically lost the case,” she said. “We strongly object to the court considering acquitted conduct.” ...