Don Siegelman's birthday is on Sunday. Please send him a note.

EFerrari

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Feb-20-08 06:26 PM
Original message

Don Siegelman's birthday is on Sunday. Please send him a note.

Please send a note or a card in support of Bush political prisoner Don Siegelman:

Don Siegelman
#24775-0001
Satellite Prison Camp
Post Office Box 5010
Oakdale, LA 71463-5019

Background.

Timeline: The political prosecution of Don Siegalman
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/timeline_don_siegelman_1126.htm

Friday, Jun. 01, 2007

Rove Named in Alabama Controversy
By Adam Zagorin/Washington

In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A longtime Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys.

The allegation was made by Dana Jill Simpson, a lifelong Republican and lawyer who practices in Alabama. She made the charges in a May 21 affidavit, obtained by TIME, in which she describes a conference call on November 18, 2002, which involved a group of senior aides to Bob Riley, who had just narrowly defeated Siegelman in a bitterly contested election for governor. Though Republican Riley, a former Congressman, initially found himself behind by several thousand votes, he had pulled ahead at the last minute when disputed ballots were tallied in his favor. After the abrupt vote turnaround, Siegelman sought a recount. The Simpson affidavit says the conference call focused on how the Riley campaign could get Siegelman to withdraw his challenge.

According to Simpson's statement, William Canary, a senior G.O.P. political operative and Riley adviser who was on the conference call, said "not to worry about Don Siegelman" because "'his girls' would take care of" the governor. Canary then made clear that "his girls" was a reference to his wife, Leura Canary, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1627427,00.html

Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama
By Adam Nossiter
Published: September 11, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama: House leaders are beginning an investigation this week of the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama, who was imprisoned in late June on federal corruption charges. The case could become the centerpiece of a Democratic effort to show that the Justice Department engaged in political prosecutions.

Republicans strongly deny the suggestion, and as Siegelman enters the fourth month of his 88-month sentence, the case is becoming a bitter flash point between Democratic officials and the Bush administration.

Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer who signed an affidavit saying she overheard a Republican political operative connect the prosecution of Siegelman to Karl Rove, will be questioned under oath this week by investigators for the House Judiciary Committee. The chairman of that committee, Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, has asked the Justice Department to turn over its documents in the case.

The department has refused his request, saying in a letter last week to the committee that "we want to avoid any perception that the conduct of our criminal investigations and prosecutions is subject to political influence." On Monday, Conyers called the department's position "unacceptable," saying of its reasoning, "This concern should lead to precisely the opposite result."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/11/asia/justice.php

February 10, 2008
Major Siegelman update...

Okay, folks, whatever you did with your calls and emails, what I have now learned is that the finished product (finished for some time) by 60 Minutes was finally screened for CBS corporate this past Friday. Now let's not all give up and go home with a victory just yet. We have work still to do, because until the show airs, we have not yet won. I would urge you to continue to call CBS corporate expressing your interest in this story.

But for the time being, we can at least breath easier knowing that we won a small battle, if not the victory yet.

Against this backdrop, I give you the latest from the brilliant Scott Horton, who also describes yet another corrupt case by US Attorney and Rove pal Alice Martin. Most importantly, he appears to be showing the WH that the story won't die even if CBS does not run it, because someone is leaking.

"If we had to pick one state in the nation where these evil tendencies are most obviously on display, then certainly it is Alabama, home to the nation’s highest profile and most abusive political prosecution. A major television network will shortly be exposing a number of lurid details surrounding the Siegelman case which point to corruption inside of the Justice Department. I have formed the view that the corruption on the prosecutorial side of the ledger greatly outweighs the corruption charged against the defendants in the Siegelman matter. The corruption inside of the Justice Department is exhibited on several different levels.

http://www.atlargely.com/don_siegelman/index.html

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

Kicks and recs much appreciated. sfexpat & mod mom