Justice Off the Tracks in Alabama

[nosmokes]

original-progressivepopulist

Justice Off the Tracks in Alabama

By Glynn Wilson

Remember the name Jill Simpson. The former longtime Republican lawyer from North Alabama is now a major whistleblower against the GOP. Ms. Simpson was to give a sworn statement Sept. 14 as the US House Judiciary Committee looks into the political corruption of the Bush Justice Department.

Her testimony is expected to reveal that if there is any state in the Union where the Bush White House and Karl Rove have manipulated the justice system of America for political purposes, it is the state of Alabama.

The relentless political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, by Bush-appointed Republican prosecutors and a Republican judge, is the most compelling case now before Congress and the courts, legal experts say.

"So far the evidence coming out of the US attorneys scandal points to political motivation in prosecutions or the suppression of prosecutions in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and California, but the strongest case so far, and the one where the direct involvement of Karl Rove is most apparent, is in Alabama, a state where Rove's roots and political connections run very deep," New York lawyer Scott Horton said in an interview. He has followed the case closely and writes a column at Harpers.org called "No Comment."

While Siegelman claimed for years that the federal prosecution of him was "political," few listened until May of this year.

A month before his sentencing on bribery charges, a Republican lawyer named Dana Jill Simpson, from Rainsville, in the northeast corner of Alabama, wrote and signed a sworn affidavit that claimed the case had been directed from the White House and the governor's mansion from the outset.

Simpson had volunteered to work for many Republican candidates over the years, including Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Ten-Commandments Judge Roy Moore. She even got involved with Karl Rove's good friend, William "Bill" Canary, who now runs the conservative Business Council of Alabama, through the governor's son Rob Riley. She has known Riley since running against him for Student Government Association president at the University of Alabama in 1987. While Riley has publicly denied being closely associated with Ms. Simpson, she has boxes full of records to prove they worked side-by-side on legal cases over the years.

~snip~
.
.
.
complete article here

[pacalo]

1. I couldn't find anything at the HoR site about her having to testify today.

[Felinity]

2. Ah, the 14th is tomorrow. n/t

[hlthe2b]

3. October 14 is tomorrow, Friday...