Political Prisoner Don Siegelman: Will the 60 Minutes Spotlight Make a Difference?

[L. Coyote]

One with any sense that detects buzz already expects
a momentous program will air Sunday night on 60 minutes.

Don Siegelman - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

Will it matter? If so, how and why?
I'll try to bypass the prognostication temptation.
What matters? I'd say, "Are we ready? What can I do?"

Did the Time magazine article make a difference?
Or the NY Times? Or the blogosphere?
Do all our DU compilation threads make a difference?
Hopefully they have. But, I'm not holding my breath.

Obviously, we have yet to make enough of a difference if you are the political prisoner cleaning toilets in Louisiana!

One thing is certain, the prosecution of Don Siegelman has been forced to defend its actions.
And, I expect another voluminous chapter of this case will quickly be written in the coming days,
as others are forced to defend their involvement, especially high figures in the DoJ and White House.

Are we ready to counter false talking points? What election rigged, you say? Is Riley a big crook?
Do you know what brushing up on your Scrushy means? Who's a Canary, or married one? The answers are on DU, of course!

Here follow past DU threads with uncounted links, just in case
you missed the history of this "scandal of the coming week."

FROM THE TOP .... The story broke in early June 2007, popping up on my daily news search for "Karl Rove."

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

Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor
By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON - Friday, Jun. 01, 2007 - http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html?xid=rss-nation

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 long time 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. ..............

========================
From June 3, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Gambling, GOP Politics Intertwine, Casino Payments Seen as Influential
by Michael Kranish - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0603-08.htm

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush gave the nation's gambling industry plenty of reason to fear his presidency. .... He wooed religious conservatives by boasting in a presidential debate about his ''strong antigambling record."

But as president, Bush has not spoken out against gambling. .... as Republican lobbyists and activist groups collected tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes seeking to preserve their casinos. Now those payments are the focus of Senate and Justice Department investigations.

... White House ... annual sessions over a four-year period that were arranged by antitax crusader Grover Norquist ... After Bush dropped his antigambling rhetoric, lobbyists touted their access, and fund-raising from Indian tribes grew exponentially.

...Norquist('s) ... organization received $1.5 million from tribes and fought a tax on Indian casinos; lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a top Bush fund-raiser who earned millions of dollars in fees as a consultant to gaming tribes; and Ralph Reed ...

After June 1, "Don Siegelman" became one of my occasional news searches.
On July 1, Don Siegelman became the story of a political prisoner brutally
shackled upon sentencing, and the story was running in the major national papers.

...GO TO JAIL NOW: Former AL Dem Governor gets 7 years despite ROVE frame-up claim.
Jul-01-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1224046

Dem gets hauled straight to jail, but Libby is roaming free still. ...

Ex-governor of Alabama gets 7 years in corruption case
Don Siegelman's co-defendant, Richard Scrushy, is sentenced to nearly the same term.
By Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writer - June 29, 2007 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-siegelman29jun29,1,4866119.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

WASHINGTON — Don Siegelman, a Democrat who served as governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003, was sentenced Thursday in Montgomery, Ala., to more than seven years in prison and fined $50,000.

He was convicted of bribery and obstruction of justice last year in a trial that he said was engineered by Bush administration officials who wanted to eliminate him as a threat to Republican dominance in the South. .........

==========================
Siegelman, Scrushy Get Prison Terms
By BOB JOHNSON - The Associated Press - June 29, 2007 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-siegelman29jun29,1,4866119.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy got nearly seven years Thursday .....

One of the significant outlets of Siegelman news has been award-winning TPM.
All things "Don Siegelman" at TPM here: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/cats/don_siegelman/

Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: Obstruction Of Justice Accusation Unclear = TPM
Aug-31-07 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1704777

"Obvious" Obstruction Of Justice Accusation Unclear
Laura McGann - August 31, 2007 - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004041.php

.... obstruction of justice accusation a prosecutor launched at jailed former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL).

I.... assistant US attorney Steve Feaga pointing to Siegelman's media campaign of claiming his case was politically motivated? Feaga said Siegelman and his co-defendant ... are "reaching out from their jail cells" trying to sway events. When asked for specifics, Feaga said "it should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention."

Randall Eliason, a former prosecutor for the US Attorney's office in Washington, DC, told me the obstruction of justice charge is probably not related to Siegelman's PR campaign. Eliason said a prosecutor must show there is a pending proceeding in order to establish obstruction. .....

So what's going on? For now, we're stumped. Faega said this will all become even "more obvious" in the coming months. .....

It took quite a while before I found the articles produced by Scott Horton (probably via a TPM link).
I wondered if "news" was being suppressed on this front, but mostly,
I started reading Horton regularly too, and turning this forum on to his blog.
All thing "Don Siegelmann" by SCOTT HORTON at Harpers "No Comment" is linked here:
92 matches (viewing 1-25) listed chronologically - http://harpers.org/search?q=Don+Siegelman&qtype=&type=WebContent&from=2007&to=2008&order_by=oldest&btnSubmit=SEARCH

Siegelman's story developed far more attention when Congress became involved, on the heels of other DoJ politization inquiries.

Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: Republican Lawyer Set To Speak With House Judiciary Under Oath
Sep-09-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1770148

Republican Lawyer Set To Speak With House Panel About Siegelman
By Laura McGann - September 7, 2007, 12:14 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004099.php

The Republican lawyer who implicated Karl Rove in the decision to prosecute former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) will speak privately -- and under oath -- with House Judiciary Committee staff next week about what she knows (http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1189154766315880.xml&coll=2 ).

The lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson, gave support (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003659.php ) to Siegelman's argument that his prosecution and subsequent conviction stemmed from a political vendetta against him. ...

Well, that's certainly enough introduction to launch this tread.
Here are other DU current threads for the serious news researchers.
Please link other threads with original resources not linked in these threads:

****** Official Thread Siegelman = "KARL ROVE WAS DEEPLY INVOLVED" *******
Sep-10-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1777924

Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: TIME COVER STORY to be Political Prosecutions in Alabama
Oct-05-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1982675

Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: UPDATES. The Curious Case of the Missing Transcript
Nov-10-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2252551

"60 Minutes" preparing report on Siegelman case
Nov-19-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3071885

SIEGELMAN SPEAKS! EX-GOV CALLS '02 ELECTION "STOLEN" BY THE WHITE HOUSE!
Dec-17-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2485896

Karl Rove, William Canary, the Siegelman Case = Political Prisoner Cleaning Toilets in Deep South
Dec-18-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2491652

WE DO make a difference, if we keep up the pressure and unflinchingly seek the truth, where ever that leads.

On edit: Link, typo repairs.

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. We have made a difference ... for example, Pacifica Radio has a

friendlier board. We helped.

Worthwhile efforts can take time, if you don't have infinite resources. Patience is required - and imagination.

Keep up the good work. You'll see results.

[L. Coyote]

2. SCOTT HORTON: Shorts from America’s Legal Hell-Hole = 2008.02.21

Shorts from America’s Legal Hell-Hole
Scott Horton - February 21, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002465


First Two CBS Teasers on Siegelman Now Up = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml
CBS News has just posted the first teaser for its feature, to air on Sunday, concerning the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. It concerns Jill Simpson’s account of her dealings with Karl Rove and his involvement in plans to take down the once popular two-term Alabama Governor:

Rove’s attempt to smear Don Siegelman was part of a Republican campaign to ruin him .... She recalls what Rove, then President Bush’s senior political adviser, asked her to do at a 2001 meeting in this exchange from Sunday’s report.

“Karl Rove asked you to take pictures of Siegelman?” asks Pelley. “Yes,” replies Simpson.

“In a compromising, sexual position with one of his aides,” clarifies Pelley. “Yes, if I could,” says Simpson ......

And here is Scott Pelley’s reporter’s notebook in which he introduces the segment: VIDEO

............. Mr. Siegelman can’t get an appeal hearing on the merits of his case and can’t get out of prison while the court takes its time. Democracy loses along with Mr. Siegelman when politics takes over the judiciary. Rolling the Monopoly dice might have given him more justice.

[L. Coyote]

25. SCOTT HORTON: Rove and Siegelman = 2008.02.22

Rove and Siegelman
Scott Horton - February 22, 2008 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002479

In the flurry of pieces running about the pending 60 Minutes exposé on Karl Rove’s involvement in the political prosecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, one passage in the AP story by Ben Evans (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_alabama_governor_4)really stuck out. It was Karl Rove’s response. And it was a flat-out lie. It showed up last night, and I assumed by now, it would be corrected, but it seems that Rove decided to stick with his lie. Rove does not speak directly, but through his attorney, Robert Luskin, who most recently steered Rove through the shoals of Patrick Fitzgerald’s criminal investigation. As you will recall, Karl Rove’s varying versions of the facts in different grand jury proceedings put him in considerable jeopardy.

Simpson testified to congressional investigators last year that she overheard conversations among Republicans in 2002 indicating that Rove was involved in the Justice Department’s prosecution of Siegelman. She has never before said that Rove pressed her for evidence of marital infidelity in spite of testifying to congressional lawyers last year, submitting a sworn affidavit and speaking extensively with reporters.

Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, denied the allegation.

“Mr. Rove never made such a request to her or anyone else,” Luskin said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Had ‘60 Minutes’ taken the trouble to contact Mr. Rove before circulating this falsehood, he would have told them the same thing.”

There is a big inaccuracy in this reporting. First ....

[L. Coyote]

28. SCOTT HORTON: Rove, Abramoff, and Siegelman, and Toby Roth too = 2007.06.09

Abramoff and “Justice” in the Heart of Dixie
Scott Horton - June 9, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000257


........ But the motherlode relates to Abramoff’s meetings with Karl Rove and Rove staffers, which likely number into the hundreds—and are matched by hundreds, if not thousands of emails and telephone conversations.

The trail of the Abramoff investigation led several times directly into the White House, but Bush Administration Justice Department investigators, headed by Public Integrity head, Noel Hillman, consistently refused to follow any leads. Hillman was rewarded for keeping things on the right track. He’s now a federal judge.

One likely trail led straight to Alabama and the current controversy surrounding the politically motivated prosecution of former Governor Don E. Siegelman. Abramoff and his sidekick Michael Scanlon, a former assistant to current governor Bob Riley, were deeply involved in advising and representing gambling interests in the Southeast. They turned their clients to support Riley in his campaign against Siegelman, and are linked to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars which flowed into the Riley campaign coffers. It seems likely that Rove knew of or perhaps even had some marginal involvement in these funding and campaign efforts, which sit firmly in the background of the efforts to remove Siegelman from the political process through a corrupt prosecution. .............

[L. Coyote]

34. SCOTT HORTON: U.S. Attorneys Scandal—Birmingham = 2007.06.01

U.S. Attorneys Scandal—Birmingham
Scott Horton - June 1, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000212


Some months ago one of my Alabama relations mentioned that she had been tracking the prosecution of Governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat. “There’s something awfully fishy about this whole prosecution. It just doesn’t smell right. It smells like politics.” Don Siegelman is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, and as his hearing approaches, the stench surrounding the whole case is beginning to rise and engulf the U.S. attorney’s office.

Today, The New York Times’s Edmund Andrews takes an in-depth look at the Siegelman prosecution (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01prosecute.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin), and it reveals that the suspicions targeting the U.S. attorney fit a familiar pattern. At the center is an affidavit which exposes a Republican political cabal aimed at using the machinery of prosecution to bring down the Democratic governor as the first step in an effort to retake the Statehouse in Montgomery for the GOP.

........

The other really troubling aspect of the Siegelman case is the nature of the corruption that Ms. Martin claims the governor committed. He’s not accused of pocketing a single penny. Instead, the accusation against him is that he steered donors to pay down the debts of an organization that lobbied for a state lottery. If this is corruption, then it’s exactly the sort of corruption that Karl Rove is engaged in virtually every day, with total impunity from the Department of Justice. But Ms. Martin is seeking thirty years as a prison term for Siegelman – a sentencing request which only serves to confirm suspicions that she has used the case for partisan political purposes. .........

June 1, 2007 - U.S. Attorney Scandal—Birmingham, Cont’d = http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000213
June 5, 2007 - U.S. Attorney’s Scandal—Birmingham and Montgomery = http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000231
June 5, 2007 - U.S. Attorneys Scandal—Birmingham and Montgomery = http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000248
June 7, 2007 - U.S. Attorneys Scandal—Birmingham and Montgomery = http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000248
June 9, 2007 - Abramoff and “Justice” in the Heart of Dixie = http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000257

[L. Coyote]

77. SCOTT HORTON: Siegelman Sentenced; Riley Rushes to Washington = 2007.07.28

Siegelman Sentenced; Riley Rushes to Washington
Scott Horton - June 28, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000402

........

Alabama Republican Governor Bob Riley, whose election campaign against Siegelman precipitated the criminal investigation and prosecution of Siegelman, was summoned urgently to Washington, DC. He was to have addressed a dinner ... Riley told disappointed organizers ... he will meet with Bush Administration officials to discuss damage control relating to the Siegelman case. “The sentence will come down today, and they’re very concerned about all the questions about the role Karl Rove played in this prosecution,” the source said.

But why the worry? Aren’t all these concerns paranoid delusions?

Hardly. In fact, the White House has given strict instructions to avoid all questioning ... Louis Franklin, the man supposedly in charge of the case, makes aggressive statements about Rove’s non-involvement – covering matters as to which he obviously has no personal knowledge – whereas Rove himself and the White House maintain an increasingly nervous silence? Telling facts, I’d say.

And consider further the White House’s invocation of Executive Privilege in a desperate last-step measure to block production of documents to Congressional oversight committees which might well have shed more light on the White House’s dealings with federal prosecutors in Alabama concerning the Siegelman prosecution. Instead, White House counsel Fred Fielding delivered a response to Congress today to which he appended a memorandum from Paul Clement (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/fielding-exec-priv/?resultpage=5&), the Solicitor General, supporting the White House in its efforts to stonewall Congress. But the Clement memo disclosed for the first time that the White House indeed is withholding a large volume of documents which establish exactly what the White House has, up to this point, feverishly denied: that Karl Rove and others directed a scheme to fire a large group of U.S. attorneys who had been handling criminal cases against Republicans, or who had refused to bring cases against Democrats, and to replace them with political lackeys. ......

[L. Coyote]

3. CBS: GOP Operative: Rove Sought To Smear Dem + VIDEOS

GOP Operative: Rove Sought To Smear Dem - 20 hours ago = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml?source=mostpop_story
136 related articles » http://www.google.com/search?q=don+siegelman

VIDEO (3:21) + Pelley's Reporter's Notebook + Scott Pelley discusses his "60 Minutes" report on the controversy surrounding the trial of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman who is serving prison time after being convicted on corruption charges.

VIDEO (1:21) + Preview: Don Siegelman

------------
GOP Operative: Rove Sought To Smear Dem
60 Minutes: Woman Says Top Bush Adviser Asked Her To Take Compromising Pictures Of Alabama Gov. Siegelman
NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2008

(CBS) A Republican operative in Alabama says Karl Rove asked her to try to prove the state’s Democratic governor was unfaithful to his wife in an effort to thwart the highly successful politician’s re-election.

Rove’s attempt to smear Don Siegelman was part of a Republican campaign to ruin him that finally succeeded in imprisoning him, says the operative, Jill Simpson.

Simpson speaks to Scott Pelley in her first television interview, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Simpson spoke to Pelley because, she says, Siegelman’s seven-year sentence for bribery bothers her. She recalls what Rove, then President Bush’s senior political adviser, asked her to do ..........

[malaise]

4. CNN carried the Rove part

It will soon be all over the Tee Vee.

[L. Coyote]

35. It started here, the national attention: NY Times, dateline BIRMINGHAM, May 31, 2007

Ex-Governor Says Affidavit Shows Politics in Bribe Case
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS - Published: June 1, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01prosecute.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 31 — Alabama has a tradition of savage political warfare, but Don E. Siegelman’s fight to stay out of prison is reverberating all the way back to Washington. Federal prosecutors here are seeking 30 years in prison for Mr. Siegelman, who was the Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003 and was convicted last year of accepting $500,000 in bribes from the chairman of the HealthSouth Corporation.

Mr. Siegelman, who is scheduled for sentencing on June 26, says he was singled out by prosecutors with close personal ties to Alabama Republican leaders and to the Bush White House ... defenders have tied his plight to the uproar in Washington over the Bush administration’s decision to dismiss eight United States attorneys, but they have produced no firm evidence of political interference.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002.

Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist. ......

[elleng]

52. Coyote, I think it started before that,

locally, as his family's been eager to help him for some time, as we would expect.

I hope the Governor can be 'cheered' by all this, as it has, indeed, taken a long time to make msm.

[L. Coyote]

55. Correcto Mundo. It hit national media with the affidavit, and DU too, on June 1st.

For Don Siegelman, this has been going on for a long time.

I know the Rs were doing dirty tricks on Dem activists and rising stars in the 60s already.
I'm not old enough to speak of before that time. but, this has been going on for as long as I have memory ....

[elleng]

59. I've read stuff on links,

and saw 60 minutes, which I thought was quite good. Its an amazing story, sure hope Dems go after it, and I fear for tactics rover et al will take; TONS of liability.

[L. Coyote]

5. Tuscaloosa News: Finally: Siegelman "60 Minutes" segment set for this Sunday

Finally: Siegelman "60 Minutes" segment set for this Sunday
Tuscaloosa News, AL - 14 hours ago

Finally: Siegelman "60 Minutes" segment set for this Sunday - http://stevensonblog.tuscaloosanews.com/default.asp?item=797789

TUSCALOOSA | The long-rumored and already highly touted story of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman's prosecution and incarceration on federal bribery charges will definitely run on "60 Minutes" this Sunday.

Emails were flying with confirmation today, including one from Dan Siegelman, the former governor's daughter,.....

============
It is Dana, of course!

[L. Coyote]

6. Decatur Daily Editorial - Siegelman denied justice by politicized judiciary

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
Editorial - http://www.decaturdaily.com/stories/5452.html
Siegelman denied justice by politicized judiciary


Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman has had no luck in getting out of federal prison on an appeal bond. His best hope appears to be a Monopoly game Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card, which describes his predicament.

Thus, from June until now, he remains in a Louisiana federal prison, out of sight after what appears to have been a political lynching ...

...

Democracy loses along with Mr. Siegelman when politics takes over the judiciary. Rolling the Monopoly dice might have given him more justice.

[alfredo]

7. Let's start pushing for a pardon for him. Open letters to bush and

your local papers would be a good idea. Put the pressure on.

[elleng]

54. alfredo,

NO CHANCE for pardon in bush admin, IMO.

We should put it on desk of NEXT Pres, hopefully Dem, for action on FIRST DAY.

[L. Coyote]

8. Siegelman's Attorneys File Motion For Former Governor's Release

Siegelman's Attorneys File Motion For Former Governor's Release ...
NBC13.com, AL - Feb 20, 2008 - http://www.nbc13.com/gulfcoastwest/vtm/news.apx.-content-articles-VTM-2008-02-20-0020.html

Attorneys for former Gov. Don Siegelman have filed a motion asking an appeals court to release their client during the appeal of his conviction in a government corruption case.

Siegelman's attorneys say a federal judge made several errors when he refused an appeal bond.

Attorneys claim there was substantial reason Siegelman would win on appeal. The filing also argues that charges were brought too late.

The move comes after the judge stated his reasons for refusing to allow Siegelman to remain free on bond during the appeal.

---------
Siegelman lawyers say judge made errors in denying release
By BOB JOHNSON al.com, AL - Feb 19, 2008 - http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1203465259315620.xml&storylist=alabamanews


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Attorneys for former Gov. Don Siegelman say a federal judge made numerous errors when he refused to release Siegelman from prison while he appeals his conviction in a government corruption case.

The attorneys filed a new motion Tuesday asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Siegelman released on an appeal bond.

They said there was substantial reason to believe he would prevail on appeal, partly because there was no "quid pro quo" in the actions that led to his bribery conviction. The filing also argued that the charges were brought too late. ...........

[L. Coyote]

9. "American Gangsters" by Brad Friedman

"American Gangsters"
Brad Blog - 49 minutes ago - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5729

-- by Brad Friedman

The U.S. Attorney Purge scandal still ranks, in my estimation, as the key to unlocking almost every other unprecedented domestic (and perhaps even foreign) criminal abuse of power by the White House. The matter strikes at the very heart of the dirty dealings by all of the President's men and, if it were to ever be fully cracked open, would likely display the totality of the blood and guts of the Administration's highly illegal, fully politicized takeover and wholesale abuse of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Little wonder then that the White House has determined to go to the mattresses when it comes to fighting off both House and Senate Judiciary Committee's investigations into the matter. They've determined they are better off playing chicken with Congress and risking criminal contempt charges (which they believe they can either refuse to enforce via the DoJ, or otherwise pardon the players whenever necessary) by refusing to turn over requested documents to Congress and ordering the refusal to testify by top officials such as Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten.

In order to guard the castle gates, after consigliere Alberto Gonzales could no longer effectively hold off the investigation ...........

[L. Coyote]

10. USA TODAY: Ex GOP staffer: Rove sought dirt on Dem gov. Is This a SEX Story?

Notice how USA TODAY zeroes right in on obstruction of justice and politization issues ... NOT (WTF)

I guess they need a "real" hook or hooker in USA TODAY. Can you spell politization of justice? LOL!

===========
Ex GOP staffer: Rove sought dirt on Dem gov.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-02-21-rove-siegelman_N.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Republican campaign operative claims that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, asked her to find evidence that the Democratic governor of Alabama at the time was cheating on his wife .....

[L. Coyote]

11. Ernest Partridge: The Gulag Comes to America: The Don Siegelman Case

The Gulag Comes to America: The Don Siegelman Case
by Ernest Partridge January 30, 2008 at 09:33:27
Page 1 of 3 page(s) - http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ernest_p_080130_the_gulag_comes_to_a.htm

A Political Prisoner

Today, Don Siegelman, former governor of the state of Alabama, sits in a federal prison, sentenced to a seven year term for bribery.

Every day that Siegelman remains in prison every American citizen who openly dissents from the policies and protests the criminality of the Bush/Cheney regime is less free and more vulnerable to politically motivated prosecution.

For the plain fact of the matter is that Don Siegelman is, in effect, a political prisoner. The formal charge against him was bribery. But, practically speaking, his offense was his political success as a Democrat in a "red" Republican state ........

[L. Coyote]

78. Paul Craig Roberts: It does happen in America: The political trial of Don Siegelman

It does happen in America: The political trial of Don Siegelman
By Paul Craig Roberts - Feb 29, 2008 - http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3013.shtml
Online Journal Guest Writer


Don Siegelman, a popular Democratic governor of Alabama, a Republican state, was framed in a crooked trial, convicted on June 29, 2006, and sent to Federal prison by the corrupt and immoral Bush administration.

The frame-up of Siegelman and businessman Richard Scrushy is so crystal clear and blatant that 52 former state attorneys general from across America, both Republicans and Democrats, have urged the US Congress to investigate the Bush administration’s use of the US Department of Justice to rid themselves of a Democratic governor whom "they could not beat fair and square," according to Grant Woods, former Republican Attorney General of Arizona .....

The abuse of American justice by the Bush administration in order to ruin Siegelman is so crystal clear that even the corporate media organization CBS allowed 60 Minutes to broadcast, on February 24, a damning indictment of the railroading of Siegelman. .......

......

The Siegelman case makes it clear exactly what Bush, Rove, and the disgraced Bush flunky, Alberto Gonzales, intended by firing the eight Republican US attorneys. These eight refused to politicize their office by falsely prosecuting Democrats in order to achieve a Rovian political agenda. Apparently, there were only eight honest persons among the 1,200 Republican US attorneys. Bush, Rove, and Gonzales had no problem with the other 1,192.

Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts said that justice in America today is about political agendas, "not about convicting real criminals." Butts said that Siegelman’s attorneys and allies expect reprisals from the US attorney’s office and Alabama’s Republican establishment.

Karl Rove refused to testify about the case before Congress.

On February 25, Fox "News" gave Karl Rove airtime in which to deny the accusations and evidence against him, which he did.

The Department of Justice (sic) refuses to release Siegelman trial documents to Congress.

Siegelman’s family home was broken into.

Siegelman’s attorney’s office was broken into and ransacked.

Jill Simpson’s house was burned down, and her car was run off the road.

This is the way "justice" works in Bush Republican Amerika.

[L. Coyote]

12. Sand Mountain Lawyer Blows the Whistle on 60 Minutes This Weekend

Sand Mountain Lawyer Blows the Whistle on 60 Minutes This Weekend
WDEF on Feb 22, 2008 - 6:52pm. News | Politics - http://wdef.com/news/sand_mountain_lawyer_blows_the_whistle_on_60_minutes_this_weekend/02/2008

Alabama partisan politics will be on full display Sunday night on 60 Minutes.

And the whistleblower comes from right in our own backyard.

Jill Simpson is an attorney from Rainsville who worked for the Republicans on opposition research.

She has long questioned the prosecution .... For the first time.. She tells that story on T-V. ...........

[L. Coyote]

73. Sworn testimony of Dana Jill Simpson

Chairman Conyers Releases Jill Simpson Transcript on the Prosecution of former Alabama Governor Siegelman
posted October 10th, 2007 - http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=833

Read the full transcript (pdf):
http://www.speaker.gov/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/jillsimpsoninterviewwithexhibits.pdf

"Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers released the transcript from the sworn testimony of Dana Jill Simpson, the Alabama attorney who earlier this year executed an affadavit that has stirred renewed interest in the prosecution and subsequent conviction of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. In the affadavit and the closed-door interview with committee staff, she cites conversations that allege Karl Rove’s involvement in the decision to prosecute Siegelman."

[L. Coyote]

13. Facing South: ... Karl Rove's quest to ruin former Alabama governor

"60 Minutes" to report on Karl Rove's quest to ruin former Alabama governor
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/02/60-minutes-to-report-on-karl-roves.asp

This Sunday, the CBS news show "60 Minutes" will report on an alleged five-year secret campaign spearheaded by former White House advisor Karl Rove to bring down Don Siegelman ....

.... last year, Dana Jill Simpson -- a Republican attorney and political activist from Rainsville, Ala. -- signed a sworn statement that she had been on a Republican campaign conference call in which she heard GOP operative Bill Canary say not to worry about Siegelman because his "girls" and "Karl" would make sure the Justice Department took care of him. His "girls" allegedly included his wife, Leura Canary -- the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Simpson has said that she spoke out because Siegelman's prosecution and imprisonment bothers her conscience. .....

[L. Coyote]

14. RAW STORY: GOP operative: Rove wanted dirt on Democratic Alabama Governor

GOP operative: Rove wanted dirt on Democratic Alabama Governor
David Edwards and Muriel Kane - February 22, 2008 - http://rawstory.com/news/2008/GOP_operative_Rove_sought_to_smear_0222.html


Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is presently serving a seven-year prison term after being convicted on charges of bribery and corruption. Many experts believe there was no basis for the conviction, and evidence continues to accumulate that the prosecution of the former Democratic governor was a political coup carried out by the Alabama Republican Party in collusion with the Bush administration.

.........

Fifty-two former state attorneys general have written to Congress questioning Siegelman's conviction. Many of them believe Siegelman was not guilty of any crime, and they are particularly concerned by the fact that the prosecution was brought by a US Attorney, Leura Canary, whose husband was the campaign manager for Alabama's current Republican Governor Bob Riley when he defeated Siegelman in the 2002 election.

Congress is investigating, but White House officials have refused to testify and the Department of Justice has resisted turning over documents.

.........

[Hissyspit]

17. Um, what's with the trashing Larisa and then quoting the website you edits?

What's with mocking her saying we may have made a difference for Gov. Siegelman and then saying 'we make a difference' in your post?

[elleng]

53. Hissy,

where do you see the 'mocking?' I can't find it.

Larisa is one of the best investigative reporters around, IMO. Fearless.

[L. Coyote]

15. WA POST Dan Froomkin: A Glimpse of Secret Rove

A Glimpse of Secret Rove
Dan Froomkin - February 22, 2008; 1:32 PM - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/02/22/BL2008022201767.html?hpid=opinionsbox1


Sunday's episode of "60 Minutes" offers a glimpse of the secret Karl Rove.

Not the public Rove -- the jovial number-crunching doofus who has taken to popping up on Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and even has his own column in Newsweek.

I'm talking about the other Rove -- the dirty trickster and master of calumny who is widely assumed to have been behind the smearing of John McCain in 2000 and the Swift-Boating of John Kerry in 2004. You know, the Rove who barely avoided a federal indictment for his part in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The one who critics believe subverted the Justice Department .....

[L. Coyote]

16. dKOS: If it can happen to a Governor...

If it can happen to a Governor...
by Kagro X - Feb 22, 2008 at 10:04:56 AM PST - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/22/122547/094/794/461951


One of the most shocking stories to grow out of the U.S. attorney firing scandal was the case of Alabama's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman. Seigelman was convicted on corruption charges last year. That conviction, and the pressure that came from the Bush Justice Department to secure it, has been a focus of Congressional hearings, and now a 60 Minutes story ...

Siegelman's supporters (which includes 52 former states’ attorneys general from both political parties) have been working with 60 Minutes for months to get this story aired in hopes that it will bring renewed interest in the case. Given that the show is going to air opposite the Academy Awards, that seems unlikely.

Scott Horton has covered this story in excruciating detail over at Harper's. http://www.harpers.org/subjects/DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry

If you haven't heard of this case, or aren't 100% clear on its details, you owe it to yourself as an American, as a voter, or just as an educated, capable adult human being with any amount of political awareness, to make yourself familiar with this travesty. CBS will only go so far in helping you do it.

This really demonstrates the lengths to which Bush-Cheney's hyper-politicized Department of Justice can go. If they can railroad the actual governor of a state into prison and have pretty much nobody really sit up and take notice, what does that say about the extent of the damage to the country? Not just the DOJ (which is a goner), but about the supposed watchdogs of the media, who've been in large part either cowed into silence, or distracted by an endless stream of shiny objects?

Seriously, this means they can do this to anybody.

But worse than that, it means that anybody who finds themselves under scrutiny by the federal government now has license to charge that they're being politically targeted. Because if this can happen as Horton describes it happening, all bets are off. It has all the ingredients of the complete and total undoing of all federal law enforcement capability for the foreseeable future.

...............

[L. Coyote]

18. The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Runs Amok

From one year ago - 18 February 2007:

==================
The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Participation Runs Amok
Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan - 18 February 2007 - http://www.epluribusmedia.org/columns/2007/20070212_political_profiling.html


VoteOur ongoing study of the Bush Justice Department (to be published in 2009) investigates the implications of the Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales Justice Department's blended religious -fundamentalist and neo-conservative rhetorical vision. The study views the impact of the Justice Department's vision on the fight against public corruption and reveals the non-proportionate political profiling of elected Democratic officials.

We presented the preliminary data through August 2004 at the Southern Speech Communication Annual meeting in April 2005 in Baton Rouge and as a refereed panel paper with data through December 2004 at the November 2005 annual meeting of the National Communication Association.

We compare political profiling to racial profiling by presenting the results (January 2001 through December 2006) of the U.S. Attorneys' federal investigation and/or indictment of 375 elected officials. The distribution of party affiliation of the sample is compared to the available normative data (50% Dem, 41% GOP, and 9% Ind.).

Data* indicate that the offices of the U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven (7) times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops.

Our paper explores the role of the fourth estate and others in detecting such profiling and concludes that what is really needed is transparency, the highlights of which are noted below.

The current Bush Republican Administration appears to be the first to have engaged in political profiling. .................

[L. Coyote]

19. How often have you read it on DU first? Judi Lynn June 1, 2007 ** Rove Linked to Prosecution ....

Evidence exists we read it first on DU, and many commented too.
Ahhhh, nostalgia, and Arrrgh, it has been nearly eight months!!!

---------
Judi Lynn ***** Fri Jun-01-07 10:49 AM
Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex- Alabama Governor
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2866829

Source: Time

Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex- Alabama Governor
Friday, Jun. 01, 2007 By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON

In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. ..............

[L. Coyote]

20. FLASHBACKS == Some More DU Siegelman Threads

US Attorney's Office KNOWINGLY Proceeded With Evidence-Against Siegelman-Which Was COERCED & FALSE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2842772

DOJ abuse of power? Here is what they did to Ala Gov Don Siegelman
Sep-15-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1817569

The Remarkable "Recusal" of US attorney Leura Canary
Sep-14-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1812562

Jill Simpson to Capitol Hill Today (AL Gov Siegelman DOJ prosecutors case)
Sep-14-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1808866

****** Official Thread Siegelman = "KARL ROVE WAS DEEPLY INVOLVED" *******
Sep-10-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1777924
LIVE NOW = http://cfuv.uvic.ca / 2002 election was RIGGED!!! Media links.

DOJ Scandal Deepens, Siegelman Judge Exposed
Oct-16-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2064855

[L. Coyote]

24. VIDEO: TPMtv: More Rove Dirty Work? = Jun-29-07

babylonsister Fri Jun-29-07

TPMtv: More Rove Dirty Work?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x37238

[L. Coyote]

32. Mark_Crispin_Miller "that little matter of a rigged election"

Mark_Crispin_Miller Mon Dec-17-07 06:45 PM
44. Hi, everybody!

Thanks to all of you for getting into this.

It's absolutely crucial that we spread the word. First of all, and most obviously, we have to free Don Siegelman. That he's been locked up for all this time, held incommunicado— and in a hardcore federal facility, with murderers for company—is difficult to bear. (I can only imagine what his family's been going through.) We have to free him; and we have to look throughout Bush/Cheney's "justice" system for other such vendettas, because Don Siegelman is not the only one.

And, second, it is crucial that we spread the word because the mainstream coverage so far (what there is of it) has, as I noted on my blog, avoided - mentioning that little matter of a rigged election. And here too Siegelman's ordeal is only one of many. That year's elections, remember, included Saxby Chambliss's fake "victory" over Max Cleland for the latter's Senate seat on Georgia (where the governor's race was fixed as well).

Once we start to look at those two (or three) subverted races in '02, we'll have to look as well at Wayne Allard's weird win in Colorado and John Sununu's in New Hampshire, where the GOP's phone-jamming operation clearly helped the party re-establish its control over the Senate (which Jim Jeffords had taken from them). Diebold played a role in both those "wins," as well as Chambliss's in Georgia; and I would also take a good hard look at Norm Coleman's ostensible defeat of Walter Mondale—a victory that I strongly doubt was caused by "the booing of Trent Lott" at Paul Wellstone's memorial service.

This sounds like a digression, but it isn't. The Siegelman affair is like a loose thread dangling from the sleeve of Bush II's shirt. Once we finish pulling on it, Bush, Cheney and the rest of them will all be standing there buck naked—and it sure won't be a pretty sight.

=================
from: SIEGELMAN SPEAKS! EX-GOV CALLS '02 ELECTION "STOLEN" BY THE WHITE HOUSE!
babylonsister Dec-17-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2485896


demobabe Dec-17-07 07:52 PM - Response to Reply #50
76. It's funny you should mention that computer glitch...

...because I've done a little research into it.

Professor Gundlach did a wonderful statistical analysis about how impossible for these results to happen, and for data to get "corrupted" on the cassette that way - the only results that changed were 6000 missing from Siegelman's total. No other candidate's vote tally changed AT ALL, not EVEN BOB RILEY'S or any other Gubernatorial candidate. Just Siegelman.

But all that aside, one thing nobody has looked at much is what was blamed as the cause of the "computer glitch": the Scantron cassette from Magnolia Springs.

Magnolia Springs is a sleepy little riverfront town where they still deliver mail by boat to some homes. They have about 3,000 voters total.

Now I'd assume some of those folks there voted for Siegelman. But wouldn't it have been obvious if there were that number of votes PLUS 6,000 EXTRA VOTES coming from that district? Or if Magnolia Springs reported a NEGATIVE VOTE COUNT?

Wouldn't it have been immediately obvious WHEN THE POLLING LOCATION AT MAGNOLIA SPRINGS REPORTED THEIR RESULTS?

If that doesn't spell fraud, I don't know what does.

[L. Coyote]

33. DU posts with some original news.

SIEGELMAN SPEAKS! EX-GOV CALLS '02 ELECTION "STOLEN" BY THE WHITE HOUSE!
Dec-17-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2485896

===============
StephW655 (3 posts) Tue Dec-18-07 07:44 AM
Response to Reply #89 - 144. Magnolia Springs

My family is from Magnolia Springs and I've been visiting there since I was a baby. My mom's brother and his family and my stepgrandmother still live there. It is a very small town. They finally got a stop light a few years ago and it was exciting. Most of the people in that area are older retirees and some of those are old dog Democrats. There are certainly not 6,000 people that would have voted that day.

I remember staying up all night watching that election. I was so excited when it was called for Seigelman and then was speechless at what unfolded next. The one image I distinctly remember is Bob Riley's son running up to a camera to emphatically say that something wasn't right and Riley had won. He just looked like he was up to something then. An hour later the Baldwin County results were changed. .....

==================
demobabe Dec-18-07 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #167- 172. Thanks for the correct election results

.... Source for the Magnolia Springs debacle... I've got a few.

1) New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E2DD1731F93BA35752C1A9649C8B63
... mention Magnolia Springs:

The trouble started election night in Magnolia Springs, a town near the Gulf of Mexico, where unofficial poll numbers were released to the news media that erroneously put the incumbent ahead. The mix-up was straightened out a few hours later, but not before Mr. Siegelman declared himself winner, proclaiming, ''How sweet it is!''

State election officials said there was no way he could have won the 7,000 votes he was at first reported to have gained from the Magnolia Springs precinct. Only 1,300 votes were cast there.

Trouble is, Don Siegelman was the only candidate to have their vote count changed. If there was a corruption in the data due to a lightening strike or power surge, it would have generated garbled data, or unreadable data - not data that selectively removes votes from one candidate but doesn't affect the other candidate, or any other race. The second count occurred in a locked courthouse with only Republicans present (which is illegal).

2) The Risks Digest/Mobile Register: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/22.60.html

The Alabama governor's election in Nov 2002 was irrevocably impeded by an unexplained anomaly in the use of ES&S optical-scan voting equipment in Baldwin County, which reversed the outcome of the election. In this case, the printed results of votes produced in the Magnolia Springs precinct were accurate (when compared with the actual ballots), but the data on the cartridges used to tabulate the final results electronically was seriously in error. Unfortunately for the candidate who should have won based on the acknowledged correct results, the erroneous electronic totals (in which about 6,300 votes for that candidate were missing) were accepted as
official. The official loser "ultimately abandoned his challenge after it became clear that he would not be able to get the statewide vote recount he had sought." Thus, the candidate with the most votes was declared the loser. Three months after the election, it is still unclear why the cassette was missing so many votes disappeared, blamed on a "computer glitch" -- possibly a "power surge at the precinct, static electricity, or something else".

3) I interviewed Professor James Gundlach from Auburn and he talks about it quite extensively. He talks about all the statistical possibilities and the fact that data is not manipulated in that way. I might upload some clips from this interview later...

==========================
LizW - Response to Reply #144 - 168. I remember, too .....

I remember how the news people at the Riley gathering that night kept saying that Riley's people were telling them something was wrong with the vote. This was just minutes after the numbers came in. This was even while Seigelman was speaking. The news people looked confused.

If I remember correctly, the Repugs were even telling the news people how much they thought the vote was off by. They knew they were going to steal it, and they started the spin right away.

==========================

[L. Coyote]

21. VIDEO: * Dan Abrams * Bush League Justice: The Don Siegelman Conviction = w/ Davis, Horton

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96500

[L. Coyote]

22. VIDEO: House Judiciary ""Allegations of Selective Prosecution" Hearing. Rep. Davis re Siegelman Case

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96511

[L. Coyote]

39. VIDEO: House Judiciary Hearing on Selective Prosecution: Rep. Scott Opening

House Judiciary Hearing on Selective Prosecution:
Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott gives opening remarks.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96808

The Judiciary Subcommittee .... joint hearing, "Allegations of Selective Prosecution: The Erosion of Public Confidence in Our Federal Justice System."

From: NancyPelosi - Videos: 1075 - Added: October 23, 2007
Subscribe = http://www.youtube.com/user/NancyPelosi

[L. Coyote]

40. VIDEO: House Judiciary Hearing on Selective Prosecution: Richard Thornburgh Opening

House Judiciary Hearing on Selective Prosecution: Richard Thornburgh Opening
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96809

[L. Coyote]

51. Cover-Up Continues. "DoJ Refuses Turnover of Internal Docs for Controversial Cases"

Text of letter on TPM:

=============
DoJ Refuses Turnover of Internal Docs for Controversial Cases
By Paul Kiel - September 10, 2007 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/09/doj_refuses_turnover_of_intern.php

Back in July, Democrats asked the Justice Department for internal documents relating to a trio of controversial prosecutions -- cases where suspicions were high of political interference. They were the prosecution of Georgia Thompson in Wisconsin, former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL), and Dr. Cyril Wecht, a Democratic coroner in Pennsylvania.

Last week, the Justice Department replied by providing documents -- most of them already public case filings (although there was one telling email). The Department did not turn over documents that Congress was really after, internal memoranda discussing the cases .....

[L. Coyote]

23. Alabama Blogs Following the Siegelman Case.

Can you add other 'Bama blog links?

Legal Schnauzer = http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/
One couple's encounter with corrupt judges, slimy lawyers, and incompetent prosecutors in Alabama. . .
and how you can avoid being cheated by the vermin who make a mockery of our justice system.

Locust Fork Journal
Archive for the ‘HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy On Trial’ Category
http://blog.locustfork.net/index.php/category/healthsouths-richard-scrushy-on-trial/

[L. Coyote]

31. emptywheel: Simpson Claims Rove Worked with Public Integrity on Siegelman Case

Simpson Claims Rove Worked with Public Integrity on Siegelman Case
by emptywheel - http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/10/simpson-claims-.html


According to Jill Simpson's testimony, in January or February of 2005, Karl Rove met with the head of Public Integrity at DOJ and got him to assign resources to the Don Siegelman case.

A .... Bill Canary and Bob Riley had had a conversation with Karl Rove again and that they had this time gone over and seen whoever was the head of the department of -- he called it PIS, which I don't think that is the correct acronym, but that's what he called it. And I had to say what is that and he said that is the Public Integrity Section.

......

Q Okay. And did Rob give you the name of the person at -- I'm just going to call it Public Integrity -- that he thought he understood Karl Rove had spoken to?

A No, he said it was the head guy there and he said that that guy had agreed to allocate whatever resources, so evidently the guy had the power to allocate resources, you know.

Q To the Siegelman prosecution?

A Yes. And that he'd allocate all resources necessary.

Set aside the Siegelman case for a second. If Simpson's testimony is truthful, it means Karl Rove had significant sway over the Public Integrity Section at DOJ in early 2005. The Abramoff investigation was in full swing. As was the CIA Leak investigation. Both of which Rove was personally implicated in.

............

Simpson's allegation is tremendously damning with regards to the Siegelman case. But it is potentially even more damning with regards to a number of other investigations that were floating through PIN at the same time.

[L. Coyote]

76. Legal Schnauzer: Judge Fuller Under the Microscope

Note the links to many related articles on this blog.

Blog Archive
    * ▼ 2008 (90)
          o ▼ February (49)
                + Eddie Curran and Scott Horton Go At It
                + Karl Rove's Obsession With Sex
                + Rove Was Looking for Gay Sex
                + Alabama GOP "Attacks" 60 Minutes
                + Tightening the Screws on "Turd Blossom"
                + The Mystery of the Siegelman Court Reporter
.........

============
Judge Fuller Under the Microscope
Monday, October 22, 2007 - http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2007/10/judge-fuller-under-microscope.html

A top legal ethicist says an affidavit from Missouri attorney Paul Benton Weeks adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller was unsuited for the Don Siegelman trial.

Scott Horton, of Harper's, interviews Professor David Luban, of Georgetown University, about key points in the Weeks affidavit (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001474).

Luban seems particularly struck by the fact that Siegelman, as governor of Alabama, appointed Gary McAliley to replace Fuller as district attorney when Fuller became a federal judge. McAliley proceeded to investigate Fuller's financial management of the DA's office in Pike and Coffee counties.

"The possibility of personal anger against Siegelman on Fuller's part is just the kind of thing that the judicial disqualification law tries to guard against," Luban says. "You simply can't preside over a criminal case against somebody who appointed a DA to investigate you."

...............

[L. Coyote]

26. Googling "Political Prisoner Don Seigelman" = 1 - 10 of about 2,920

"Sunday night, coincident with Siegelman’s 62 birthday"

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,920 for Political Prisoner Don Siegelman
This thread is #2! http://www.google.com/search?q=Political+Prisoner+Don+Siegelman

#3 is santamargarita's Journal discussing Ernest Partridge (linked above)
Let's not Forget Political Prisoner, Don Siegelman ... For the plain fact of the matter is that Don Siegelman is, in effect, a political prisoner. ...
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/santamargarita/22
Jan-30-08 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2794429

Bama TIVOs at the ready for '60 Minutes'
Southern Political Report, GA - 4 hours ago - http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_223_236.aspx
Don Siegelman. That long-awaited segment has finally been scheduled for this Sunday night, coincident with Siegelman’s 62 birthday and opposite the Academy ...

[L. Coyote]

27. Regarding "The False and the Absurd" being False and Absurd

The False and the Absurd (OR Regarding "The False and the Absurd" being False and Absurd), a parenthetical commentary.

-------------
The False and the Absurd By Quin Hillyer 2/22/2008 11:59:00 PM
(Quin Hillyer is an associate editor of the Washington Examiner and a senior editor of The American Spectator, the people who brought you the Arkansas Project in black and white, but not read all over.)

As if the liberal establishment media isn't already embarrassed enough by the bizarrely thin New York Times hatchet job against John McCain

(Is that why it came out now, to hatchet job 60 minutes?)

now 60 Minutes comes along to run with an even less documented, and frankly far less believable

(Can't we decide for ourselves? or Can't your readers?)

hatchet job against Karl Rove -- without even asking Rove to respond!

(Hilarious lie.)

The whole story is not just sleazy journalism,

(Speaking for myself, I'm not claiming authority in this department)

it's whatever ranks below "sleazy" on the absolute scale of perfidy.

(Now you just want us to know you are connected to an online dictionary.)

On Thursday, the 60 Minutes web site began hawking

(What is it called when you promote?)

a feature to run on its show. This Sunday, an already discredited Alabama attorney named Dana Jill Simpson

(Are those attorney phones I hear ringing off to the South?)

(I have to say it, parenthetically of course, regarding "The False and the Absurd" being False and Absurd, well, "The False and the Absurd" is False and Absurd, and it may be slanderous. Crossing legal lines is not something new to the Arkansas Project mentality.)

[Fridays Child]

29. k/r

[L. Coyote]

30. VIDEOS: ***** Don Siegelman Speaks! ***** Parts I & II

orleans ***** Dec-17-07 ***** Don Siegelman Speaks!

PART II: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x76986

PART II: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x76995

"Here is some amazing video: a very candid interview with Don Siegelman, who spoke to Julie Sigwart of Take Back the Media on Sept. 13, 2004--months before the Governor was finally put away on trumped-up charges by the Alabama GOP.

"As he himself makes clear, Siegelman's ordeal began back in 2000, when he came out early on, and publicly, against the presidential bid of his fellow governor, George W. Bush, and backed Al Gore instead. It was a move that Karl Rove never did forget, and never would forgive, says Siegelman. ..."

======= ALSO there this post ==========
diva77 Mon Dec-17-07 ****** 4. ES&S tabulator used in Baldwin County in Nov. 2002 race

http://www.votersunite.org/info/content/mess-up_082304.asp

Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 08/23/04)
Baldwin County, Alabama. November, 2002. ES&S.
Optical scan data packs malfunction.
Tabulation machine initially handed the gubernatorial election to the wrong candidate.*

Initial, unofficial results from Baldwin County showed that Democrat Don Siegelman garnered about 19,070 votes in the county, enough to give him a razor-thin victory over Republican challenger Bob Riley. The next morning, however, officials said those totals were inaccurate and certified returns giving Siegelman about 6,300 fewer votes -- enough to swing the election to Riley.
... Officials have traced the problem to a data pack from the Magnolia Springs voting location. They said the vote-counting machine there printed out accurate results when the polls closed at 7 p.m. But they said the cartridge, which resembles an eight-track cassette, gave bogus figures when it was plugged into the computer in Bay Minette.

... Kelley said a power surge at the precinct, static electricity or something else may have caused the glitch. He said technical experts at the company's computer lab in Rockford, Ill., may be able to determine the reason.

...He noted that at least three other counties experienced similar glitches on election night. But officials in Madison, Etowah and Barbour counties discovered and corrected the errors, in some cases by manually typing in vote totals.

* Voting snafu answers elusive. The Mobile Register. 28 Jan 2003. by Brendan Kirby, staff writer. Confirmed by VotersUnite! with Sharon Jerkins in the Baldwin County Elections office.

[L. Coyote]

36. donsiegelman.org >> pages >> topics >> QUESTIONS

Don't miss the Friends of Don Siegelman website: http://donsiegelman.org

LATEST NEWS & MEDIA - TOP STORIES
Here are the questions pages, presenting and linking to articles:

Laundered Money? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/laundered_money.html

Fixed Elections? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/fixed_elections.html

Propaganda or Press? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/unprofessional_press.html

Suppress Investigations for Political Purposes? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/Suppress_Investigations.html

Corruption of Justice? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/Politicalized_Justice.html

Quid Pro Quo? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/quid_pro_quo.html

Jury Misconduct? http://donsiegelman.org/pages/topics/QUESTIONS/Jury_midconduct.html

[annabanana]

37. You seem to have the ducks in a row!. . . great compilation. . . .n/t

[L. Coyote]

38. VIDEO: Check Out What Karl Rove Did To Don Siegelman = TheYoungTurks 2008.02.22

Check Out What Karl Rove Did To Don Siegelman = TheYoungTurks 2008.02.22
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96798

[L. Coyote]

41. VIDEO: Karl Rove made plans to BLACKMAIL Alabama Governor

It begins .... Karl Rove is getting some unwanted attention?

Wait 24 hours! :rofl:

=========
Karl Rove made plans to BLACKMAIL Alabama Governor
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x96785

[lala_rawraw]

42. Larisa Alexandrovna - GoLeft TV

http://goleft.tv/view.asp?v=786

[lala_rawraw]

43. Raw Story - The Permanent Republican Majority Part I

Permanent Republican Majority Part I - Political prisoner
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html

[lala_rawraw]

44. Raw Story - The Permanent Republican Majority Part - Siegelman Timeline

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/timeline_don_siegelman_1126.htm

[lala_rawraw]

45. Raw Story - The Permanent Republican Majority Part II -Interview with Dana Siegelman

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_permanent_Republican_majority_Daughter_of_1127.html

[lala_rawraw]

46. Raw Story - The Permanent Republican Majority Part II - Rove's Involvement

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_Part_III_1216.html

[lala_rawraw]

47. OpEd News: The Gulag Comes to America

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2905.shtml

[L. Coyote]

48. ***** Happy Birthday Gov. Don Siegelman *****

***** Happy Birthday Gov. Don Siegelman ***** Official SHOUT OUT Support Thread *****
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2915968

[Junkdrawer]

49. Looks like Nader's announcement will drown the 60 Minutes story...

:(

[L. Coyote]

50. No way, but Karl Rove is going to wish it were so, that I do prognosticate.

No glass ball needed to see Karl Rove, Hillman, Gonzales, Judge Fuller,
Riley, Abramoff, Scanlan, Reed,et.al. won't enjoy life as much this week! :rofl:

It is time to put the spotlight on all the nefarious details and players.
People like Noel Hillman have practically escaped scrutiny so far. Too many crooks!

===================================
Noel Hillman and the Siegelman Case
Scott Horton - July 13, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000509

Noel Hillman is a federal judge in Camden, New Jersey appointed to the court by President Bush in the spring of 2006 ... in 2007, the Bush White House decided to appoint Hillman to a coveted seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Again, Congressional support was lined up and Hillman’s confirmation seemed all but a “done deal.” And then something happened. New Jersey’s leading newspaper, the Newark Star-Ledger, put it this way in a report on June 10:11. “The Auditor,” The Newark Star-Ledger, Sunday, June 10, 2007, Perspective Section, p. 3, final ed.

Hillman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey and the lead Justice Department prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff Capitol Hill lobbying scandal, had full White House support and the backing of New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, but the Bush Administration pulled the nomination for reasons that remain a mystery.

Did Hillman’s deep involvement with the prosecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, Wisconsin administrator Georgia Thompson, and a growing number of other cases in which political manipulation of prosecutions are involved cost him a court of appeals judgeship? This is what sources close to the process on Capitol Hill are telling me.

Hillman is a “loyal Bushie,” and a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, .... , and was later selected by Chertoff to head the Public Integrity Section (PIN), one of the most sensitive, and also one of the most intrinsically political positions in the Department of Justice. Reduced to its essence, PIN decides who and what is corrupt in the American political landscape.

Four Judges

Hillman is also one of four sitting federal judges who have played roles in connection with the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. ......

[L. Coyote]

56. CBS VIDEO "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman" embedded in Scott Horton's Blog

The entire CBS VIDEO is embedded in Scott Horton's Blog commenting on the program.

CBS: More Prosecutorial Misconduct in Siegelman Case
Scott Horton - February 24, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002487

CBS aired its long-awaited feature on the prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman this evening at 7:00. In a stunning move of censorship, the transmission was blocked across the northern third of Alabama by CBS affiliate WHNT, which is owned by interests of the Bass Family. Those who were in the zone of censorship or who missed it, can catch the whole segment here: ...............

[L. Coyote]

75. HORTON on McCain, Abramoff, and the Riley Band of Choctaw Republicans

"A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation."

Abramoff and the Riley Band of Choctaw Republicans
Scott Horton - February 28, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002511


.... “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” ...... Epidemic corruption really dates from roughly 2002, as the G.O.P. achieved its long sought after lock-hold on the Congress, the White House and the judiciary. And the simple truth is that corruption among public office holders is not the preserve of one party or the other, but rather something that thrives when the checks-and-balances system fails, and the press turns a blind eye on the problem or becomes itself too cynical (or even, like in Alabama, enmeshed in the corruption). There are several lessons to be learned from the Bush presidency, and this I submit is an important one. We underappreciated the role of checks-and-balances.

In Washington today, corruption is more deeply entrenched than at any point in my lifetime. We see it in a corrupt system of award of public contracts, increasingly through a no-bid process cloaked in secrecy to avert the public’s gaze. We see it in a Justice Department which often seems more bent on committing crimes than averting them .... New York Times editorializes about this disgusting spectacle today, with some well-chosen words:

Anxiety is palpable in the House as lawmakers try to wriggle out of a vote on whether to create an independent Office of Congressional Ethics ..... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/opinion/28thu2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

..... The Abramoff case itself presents an interesting example of the sort of gamesmanship that has surrounded political corruption inquiries. In the words of Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, the Abramoff scandal is by most measures the most significant political corruption scandal in the nation’s history. It was pursued, but only so far, and then the matter came to an amazing dead-end: in Alabama. Sam Stein reports:

On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation. ...... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/mccain-withheld-controver_n_88304.html?view=screen

[L. Coyote]

57. Siegelman's Attorneys to Call for Special Counsel in Wake of 60 Minutes Report

Siegelman's Attorneys to Call for Special Counsel in Wake of 60 Minutes Report
By Paul Kiel - February 25, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/siegelmans_attorneys_to_call_f.php

In the wake of last night's 60 Minutes report (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/todays_must_read_283.php), attorneys for Don Siegelman will be requesting (http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-34/120397105970350.xml&storylist=alabamanews) a special counsel to investigate the politicization of the prosecution.

Vince Kilborn, one of the attorneys handling Siegelman's appeal, said that the request, which will be addressed to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, will focus on 60 Minutes' revelation that prosecutors had such problems with Nick Bailey, the government's star witness, that he had to write out his testimony over and over again to get it straight. Such notes would have been required to be turned over to Siegelman's counsel before trial. Prosecutors turned over no such material, 60 Minutes reported.

Kilborn said that the request will focus on the obvious conflict of interest ......

[EFerrari]

58. My Castro / Obama / Siegelman rant up at OpEdNews

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_elizabet_080224_mr__castro_2c_senator_.htm

[L. Coyote]

60. This thread is at the top of Google if you search for Political Prisoner Don Seigelman

TOP RESULT! Wahooooo

Results 1 - 10 of about 3,870 for Political Prisoner Don Seigelman

Please keep compiling the great resources (and keywords). Researchers will be landing here.

[L. Coyote]

61. It made a difference. Rove has spoken! = "It's A Lie" = VIDEOS

Not exactly Gonzolies (lying contest winner) in this case because,
I suspect, the last one standing WILL NOT be the liar!

In the Siegelman case, the liar accusations are in full swing, Rove Vs. Simpson.

VIDEO: Dana Jill Simpson Responds to Karl Rove
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x97999

Simpson Responds to Rove
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x97999

By Paul Kiel - February 26, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/simpson_responds_to_rove.php
(= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5eQW3P4v1g)

Yesterday we brought you Karl Rove's expansive denial of Republican lawyer Dana Jill Simpson's testimony to Congress and comments to 60 Minutes.

Simpson responded last night on MSNBC's Dan Abrams show: "Since Karl Rove has said that and he feels so good saying that, what I want him to do is go and swear before the United States Congress and swear what he's saying is true."

Simpson also responded to accusations from the Alabama Republican Party that Simpson had never worked for the party and no one had ever heard of her. She said that phone records would show conversations with party officials in Alabama and Washington, D.C. in 2002 and 2006.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Don Siegelman case in October, Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) produced phone records showing that Simpson had spoken with William Canary, a Republican operative, on the day in 2002 that she said Canary had told her on a conference call that his wife and another U.S. attorney would "take care" of Siegelman. .........

==================
Rove: "It's A Lie"
By Paul Kiel - February 25, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/rove_its_a_lie.php

Karl Rove, now a frequent talking head on Fox News, for the first time publicly addressed the Don Siegelman case today. You can watch his appearance here:

VIDEO (= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpoz6YerDao)
DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=97638&mesg_id=97638

It amounted to a complete denial that he ever knew Dana Jill Simpson (he might have met her at a fundraiser, he said, but didn't "believe" that he ever had) and that she ever worked on any campaign with which he was involved. "I never asked her to do a darn thing," he said. "It's a lie what she said."

[L. Coyote]

62. VIDEO (06:22): Dan Abrams ** Bush League Justice Followup: Don Siegelman

Bush League Justice: Don Siegelman (Abrams followup) Run time: 06:22
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x97755

'Dan Abrams reports on the Don Siegelman case and how 60 Minutes was mysteriously blacked out in parts
of Alabama only for this portion of the show. He talks to Doug Jones and Dana Jill Simpson about the case.'

[L. Coyote]

68. VIDEO: Dan Abrams: Dana Siegelman & Scott Horton Interviews - 2008.02.27

Dan Abrams: Dana Siegelman & Scott Horton Interviews - 2/27/08
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x98494


"Dan Abrams continues to report on the Don Siegelman case during his series Bush League Justice. Dan talks to Dana Siegelman about the delays in her father's case."

[L. Coyote]

69. Part 2 of VIDEO: Dan Abrams: Dana Siegelman & Scott Horton

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x98639

[L. Coyote]

70. VIDEO: Dan Abrams ** Bush League Justice ** Siegelman Case Coverage - 2008.02.28

** Dan Abrams ** Bush League Justice ** Siegelman Case Coverage ** 2008.02.28
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x99013

[EFerrari]

63. Kick

[L. Coyote]

64. NY Times: Media Blackout Update: Pakistan and Alabama?

Media Blackout Update: Pakistan and Alabama?
By Mike Nizza - February 25, 2008, 1:03 pm - http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/media-blackout-update-pakistan-and-alabama/

Governments that try to keep a firm grip on information flow in their countries, like the Kremlin, have used “technical problems” as an excuse to shut out unwelcome content on the Web and television. But could it have happened in the United States?

A controversy has been brewing on the Web since a “60 Minutes” segment failed to appear on a CBS affiliated TV station in Alabama last night.... many Alabamans did not see initial broadcast of the report, which included new allegations that Karl Rove, President Bush’s former top adviser, waged a campaign against Mr. Siegelman.

Instead, just before the segment was to start, people in the northern part of the state who were tuned in to WHNT-TV, Channel 19 in Huntsville, found this on their screen instead:

We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring ‘The Prosecution of Don Siegelman.’ It was a technical problem with CBS out of New York.

Upon hearing reports of the missed segment from readers, Scott Horton, a writer blogging at Harper’s, phoned CBS headquarters in New York, which offered him a startling contradiction:

“There is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call.”

The station later denied that ......

[L. Coyote]

65. Nation: The 60 Minutes Blackout = COMMENT

Posting a comment requires registration. Click here to register.

==========
The 60 Minutes Blackout
Te-Ping Chen | BLOG | Posted 02/26/2008 @ 10:49pm - http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet?bid=917&pid=291259

This latest broadcast incident is only a narrow aperture into the broader Siegelman scandal, in which the former Democratic governor was denied office and subsequently jailed as the result of what 52 former state attorneys general (Republicans and Democrats) have called "irregularities" in his prosecution – that is, what was manifestly a concerted political attack, flamboyantly executed (thus far, with impunity). ....

[L. Coyote]

80. REUTERS: FCC official wants probe of "60 Minutes" black-out

FCC official wants probe of "60 Minutes" black-out
By Peter Kaplan - Mar 3, 2008 - http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN0338745620080303


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Federal Communications Commission official is seeking an inquiry into the blacking out of a politically charged segment of the CBS News magazine "60 Minutes" by a local television station in Alabama.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he had asked the chairman of the FCC to open an inquiry into the February 24 incident at WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, in which civil rights footage from the 1960s was blacked out.

"The FCC now needs to find out if something analogous is going on here," Copps said at a luncheon with media watchdog groups. "Was this an attempt to suppress information on the public airwaves, or was it really just a technical problem?"

Copps is one of two Democratic appointees on the five-member FCC. The chairman of the agency, Kevin Martin, is a Republican.

Martin responded by saying he would look into the matter .............

[L. Coyote]

66. Siegelman, Plame, the Six Fired US Attorneys & the Deep-Sixing of Justice in the USA

Siegelman, Plame, the Six Fired US Attorneys & the Deep-Sixing of Justice in the USA
February 27, 2008 - http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_richard__080227_siegelman_2c_plame_2c_th.htm
by Richard Power (Posted by magginkat) Page 1 of 2 = http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_richard__080227_siegelman_2c_plame_2c_th.htm

You Can't Heal a Wound Until You have Cleaned It

Many legal minds were shocked when federal judge Mark Fuller, at sentencing, sent Siegelman directly to prison without allowing the usual 45 days before reporting.

"He had him manacled around his legs like we do with crazed killers. And whisked off to prison just like that. Now what does that tell you? That tells you that this was personal. You would not do that to a former governor," Woods says.

"Would you do that to any white collar criminal?" Pelley asks.

"No, I haven't seen it done," Woods says.

"Help me understand something. You're blaming the Republican administration for this prosecution. You're saying it was a political prosecution. You are a Republican. How do I reconcile that?" Pelley asks.

"We're Americans first. And you got to call it as you see it. And you got to stand up for what's right in this country," Woods says.

................

[L. Coyote]

67. RawStory: Jailed governor's daughter accuses judge of delaying appeal

Jailed governor's daughter accuses judge of delaying appeal
David Edwards and Muriel Kane - February 28, 2008 - http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Siegelman_daughter_He_knows_Karl_Rove_0228.html


At the heart of the case of imprisoned former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman are charges that he was railroaded by Karl Rove and the Republican Party. MSNBC host Dan Abrams has become a passionate advocate for Siegelman's cause, and in an extended segment on Wednesday's program, he examined various aspects of this allegation.

Dana Siegelman, the former governor's daughter, joined Abrams Wednesday to discuss attempts to get her father's sentence reviewed. She said her father was "excited" and "reencouraged" by the CBS and MSNBC coverage of his case and that she believes Judge Mark Fuller is deliberately "sitting on" the transcript of Siegelman's 2006 trial that has to be available before any appeal can go forward.

She confirmed that her father "absolutely" believes Rove is responsible for his incarceration. "He knows Karl Rove is behind this. ... My dad was the first governor to endorse Al Gore. ... He spoke at the Democratic national meeting in Boston and said some things that were very controversial and things that scared the Republican Party into thinking that my dad was also looking to run on a national scale."

Earlier in the program, Abrams spoke to legal professor Scott Horton, an expert on the Siegelman case, and asked him about the blackout ......

[greyl]

71. "Free Siegelman" avatars

Thanks for helping to keep the story alive, L. Coyote.

[L. Coyote]

72. 2008.02.29 SCOTT HORTON: Siegelman Updates = Numerous entries/issues.

Siegelman Updates
Scott Horton - February 29, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002517


The Alabama G.O.P. Wrestles with Retraction

One of the most interesting sideshows coming out of the transmission of the 60 Minutes segment dealing with former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman has been the conduct of the Alabama G.O.P. The CBS piece features direct charges leveled at Karl Rove and at Bush Administration prosecutors. But to listen to Michael Hubbard, the chair of the Alabama Republicans, you’d think it was a grudge match between 60 Minutes and his party. There must be some reason for Hubbard to adopt this posture, and for it instantly to be shared by his captive press. But maybe it’s something on the order of that line from Hamlet: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

So let’s do something that no Advance newspaper in Alabama will ever do. Let’s take a look at the way Hubbard keeps moving the stakes around and the points which are left curiously unaddressed in the Hubbard statements.

Here’s what Mr. Hubbard said on February 24 (http://www.algop.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=7168):

......

And here’s how the Birmingham News repositions Mr. Hubbard three days later (http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1204103721251760.xml&coll=2&thispage=2):

..............

[L. Coyote]

74. WHNT Blackout Update = Oak Hill Capital Partners, Robert M. Bass

WHNT Blackout Update
Scott Horton - February 28, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002512

I have now gotten considerably more detail on the political campaign donations of the investors behind Oak Hill Capital Partners, the investor group that acquired WHNT from the New York Times Company in 2006. The key figure in the Oak Hill group is Robert M. Bass. His campaign donation profile shows that he has supported both Democrats and Republicans, but that his donations to Democrats far exceed those to Republicans. The complete five-year search can be examined here. Note specifically that he has never supported George W. Bush–either in his races for governor of Texas or president. Sid, Edward and Lee Bass, who have been heavy Bush supporters, do not appear to have any interest in Oak Hill Capital Partners. Consequently, the supposition that the blackout at WHNT was politically driven censorship on the part of the ultimate owners has no merit. The station continues to insist that the problems were purely technical.

............

[L. Coyote]

84. TPM: Kerry Presses FCC on 60 Minutes Siegelman Blackout

Kerry Presses FCC on 60 Minutes Siegelman Blackout
By Paul Kiel - March 5, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/kerry_presses_fcc_on_60_minute.php


Did CBS Alabama affiliate WHNT just have really rotten luck with its equipment during 60 Minutes' segment on ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D), or did the station actually try to censor the story on Republicans' alleged attempts to use the Justice Department to take out a political opponent?

Michael Copps, a Dem appointee on the Federal Communications Commission, has already begun pushing for an investigation. Chairman Kevin Martin has been noncommittal.

But Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, wants Martin to know that he'll be keeping an eye on things. In a letter to Martin today, he asks that Martin share whatever findings emerge from an investigation, and adds "I will be monitoring this situation closely."

The full letter is below. ..................

======================
FCC Investigating "60 Minutes" Alabama Blackout
By Jane Ivory, March 5th 2008 - http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_FCC_Investigating_60_Minutes_Alabama_Blackout_14793.html


FCC Investigating "60 Minutes" Alabama Blackout

The Federal Communications Commission has decided to look into a recent blackout .......

Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday that the agency had received “some 20-odd complaints” regarding the broadcast.

“I have instructed the staff to handle this like we do all the other complaints,” Martin said. “I've asked the staff to send a letter (to the station) with the complaints attached, asking them to respond to it.” .........

[L. Coyote]

79. First Monday: The Siegelman Case — A Political Prosecution Exposed

First Monday: The Siegelman Case — A Political Prosecution Exposed
By: Scott Horton Monday March 3, 2008 12:00 pm - http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/03/first-monday-the-siegelman-case-a-political-prosecution-exposed/


Last Sunday, CBS aired its long-awaited feature on the prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman.

The CBS piece, for which I was repeatedly interviewed, came through on its promise to deliver several additional bombshells. The most significant of these was the disclosure that prosecutors pushed the case forward and secured a conviction relying on evidence that they knew or should have known was false, and that they failed to turnover potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. The accusation was dramatically reinforced by the Justice Department’s failure to offer a denial. ..........

[EFerrari]

81. Kick

[Ellipsis]

82. kick. n/t

[lonestarnot]

83. Transcript produced. Sounds like it may have that and everyone's

involvement! :applause: Kick for justice!

[EFerrari]

85. FCC looks into "60 Minutes" blackout

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2961811

[L. Coyote]

86. Democracy NOW: Guest: Scott Horton = FCC Launches Probe of Alabama TV Station

FCC Launches Probe of Alabama TV Station Accused of Censoring a 60 Minutes Expose
on the GOP’s Prosecution of Alabama’s Imprisoned Former Gov. Don Siegelman
March 06, 2008 - http://i4.democracynow.org/2008/3/6/fcc_launches_probe_of_alabama_tv

Last month, 60 Minutes exposed new details on how Karl Rove and the Bush administration may have unjustly targeted Siegelman for political reasons. However, viewers of CBS affiliate WHNT in northern Alabama saw nothing but a black screen during most of the segment. We speak to Scott Horton about the case and his new article in Harper’s, “Vote Machine: How the Republicans Hacked the Justice Department.”

Purchase DVD/CD
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Guest: Scott Horton, New York attorney specializing in international law and human rights. He is a legal affairs contributor to Harper’s magazine, where he writes the blog No Comment. He served as chair of the Committee on International Law at the New York City Bar Association. .....

AMY GOODMAN: What happened to WHNT?

SCOTT HORTON: Well, we have to go back a little bit here. We have a situation in Alabama that’s very much like what was experienced during the civil rights era. That is, network television and national media has focused on an issue, has come in and has seen that the coverage inside of Alabama is just inexplicably strange. It’s skewed. It doesn’t fairly present the facts. And much of it seems to be—to have a vendetta-like quality targeting Siegelman. It seems to be participating in the prosecution rather than reporting on it. So a lot of this national reporting is very, very critical of the local media.

So, against that background, when we had this mishap, as described by WHNT, a large part of the audience there simply refuses to accept that it was a mishap. And I think that starts with the explanation that WHNT immediately put out. They said that they were having technical difficulties with the network at the time. I got calls from people in northern Alabama when this happened. I had done work with CBS in connection—supported their research on this. And I called CBS News in New York and was told, no, there were no technical difficulties. The signal was out, it was fine, it was going all across the country. The station, WHNT, had the signal and had operating transmitters. They couldn’t understand what was wrong.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And has the station clarified since then what the technical difficulties were?

................

[L. Coyote]

87. SCOTT HORTON: Mr. Blackledge’s Black Helicopters = 2008.03.09

Mr. Blackledge’s Black Helicopters
Scott Horton - March 9, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002581


Back in October, as the House Judiciary Committee was conducting its first hearings into the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman, I spoke with Simon Heller, the legal director of a Washington-based advocacy organization called the Alliance for Justice. Heller told me he had gotten a telephone call. “It was strange. ......

.....

Karl Rove’s work as a campaign advisor in Alabama dates back at least to 1992, and continued after he went to the White House, Rove’s disclaimers notwithstanding. I’m reasonably confident that this is why Rove refused an on-camera interview with CBS, or with any other serious media organization. In addition to four Supreme Court races, he has been involved frequently in less formal ways in a half dozen other races, and most significantly he served as campaign advisor to William Pryor. That’s the same William Pryor who actually initiated and drove the case against former Governor Siegelman.

A former executive of the Business Council of Alabama recently described to me in some detail Rove’s proposals for politicizing the organization—turning it into a battle ax for the Alabama G.O.P., with Rove’s good friend William Canary in the foreground and Rove himself hovering in the distance. It was a brilliant plan from the G.O.P.’s perspective. And the fact that no major Alabama paper has ever reported on it tells the reader a great deal about the state’s incurious media. .....