In a time seemingly with a a theme of no accountability for those responsible for the debacle that America became in the past decade, here is one postive development. After reading Roger Shuler's article, continue on below to read about the connection with and status of the Gov. Siegelman case. - H'spitLegal SchnauzerFRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010
Government Pays Restitution to Alabama Victim of Bush Justice DepartmentAt least
one victim of the George W. Bush Justice Department has received some measure of justice. An attorney in the case says he expects to see more such settlements in the future.
The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to pay $290,000 in restitution to Alex Latifi, a Huntsville, Alabama, defense contractor who was targeted for a botched prosecution that appeared to be politically motivated.
In announcing the settlement, the government admitted no wrongdoing. Latifi, the owner of Axion Corp., agreed to not pursue claims of misconduct and bad faith against government prosecutors, who were led by Alice Martin, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. Latifi is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen, and the
prosecution had racial overtones from the outset.
The settlement came after Latifi's attorneys sought to subpoena Martin and others involved in the prosecution. Henry Frohsin, one of Latifi's lawyers, said it was a highly unusual ending to a case involving the federal government.
It's a revolutionary ruling and case,” said Mr. Frohsin. “I can't speak for the Department of Justice, but it's not likely that you will find any other case where the government has voluntarily agreed to make restitution. The fact is it was a misguided and unfair prosecution by the Bush administration and DOJ that never should have been waged in the first place and one the government ultimately lost. We believe this settlement begins to rectify some of the evils of the past administration.”
Jim Barger, another Latifi attorney, hinted at some of the obstacles his client faced in the case:
“We knew from the start that it would be a long and difficult battle,” says Mr. Barger. “After all, the U.S. Department of Justice is the largest and most powerful legal organization in the world. But we also knew that the government was wrong in this case, and we were not going to give up. We subpoenaed Alice Martin, David Estes, and other members of the government’s legal team and were prepared to question them under oath to expose the extreme misconduct in this case."
Axion, which once employed about 60 people, is slowly recovering. After being virtually shuttered, it now has about 12 employees and is aggressively pursuing contracts worth millions of dollars--and that could lead to rapid growth.
"Of course, we’re pleased that Mr. Latifi will receive this compensation, but his family-owned defense contracting company was basically decimated. Alex is now fighting to get his company and his reputation back, and he is succeeding. Over the past two years Axion Corporation has secured a number of contracts with the U.S. Government to produce parts and equipment for the Defense Department and war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are proud to say that he produces one of the most important safety devices in the war theaters, the Abrams Mine Roller, which protects our soldiers against IEDs.”
The government previously had paid $70,000 to Latifi for attorney fees. The restitution payment will go directly to Latifi. Reports The Huntsville Times:
Peggy Sanford, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, said given the government's prior payment to Latifi for legal fees, Vance's office conferred with Justice Department officials in Washington and decided a settlement to resolve other claims was in the best interest of the United States.
"This was so we could devote our resources to protecting the people in this district rather than expending them on extended litigation in which we believe we would have ultimately prevailed, but the outcome is never certain," Sanford said.
The Latifi settlement definitely is historic in one sense. It is the first case involving misconduct under the Bush Department of Justice that the Obama DOJ has settled. Frohsin does not expect it to be the last.
“The Axion case should be a clear signal to the DOJ and to future defendants that a guilty plea is not always the answer to a government charge. The Axion case] may also ultimately have the positive effect of encouraging the government to focus on developing meritorious cases, rather than pursuing weak or marginal cases of dubious merit.”
MODS: Reproduced in Entirety w/ Permission of Author. This following article by Professor Donald Swift is excellent general overview of the case, providing you with more understanding of the connections with the above. Please click on a link to read all of it.http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/will-governor-don-siegelman-get-justiceWill Governor Don Siegelman Get Justice?by Donald C. Swift / August 12th, 2010
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Siegelman’s case was the most famous of the Bush Justice Department’s political prosecutions, but the unsuccessful effort to jail Cyril Wecht was probably the most malignant of them. It illustrates the kind of political prosecution that has become common in the Republican South. These prosecutions hinge of a very vague and short piece of legislation—the “honest services” and mail fraud statute– that imposes stiff penalties upon officials and others accused of not providing citizens with “honest services” due to corruption.
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Signs of a Political ProsecutionAfter Siegelman was sentenced, mounting evidence appeared that this was indeed a political prosecution. However, there seemed to be no way to use any of it.
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Mr. Canary later said under oath that he played a role in getting the federal attorneys to go after Siegelman. Canary later testified that he had talked about getting the girls to work against Siegelman. The most recent DOJ filing says he swore under oath that he had not contacted Karl Rove, but none of this appears in his Congressional testimony. After the successful prosecution, Rove threw a party for Steve Feaga, one of the prosecutors, at his Rosemary Beach, Florida home. Feaga is a Reserve Colonel, who served in the legal office at Langley AFB. Perhaps he could have had a role in reviewing the fueling contract held by Judge Fuller’s firm. When the House Judiciary Committee looked into Rove’s possible involvement, it found that his e-mails about the dinner party were among the millions that had been lost.
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A paralegal named Tamarah Grimes was fired for writing to the Attorney General in 2007 about the continued involvement in the case of a Mrs. Canary, who earlier recused herself. Grimes produced e-mails to prove her point. Ms. Grimes also had evidence that a witness was coached and showed that prosecutors were communicating with jurors during the trial. Some of her evidence was on audio tape, and the DOJ wanted to prosecute her for making the recordings. The case became intertwined with the politically-motivated firings of federal prosecutors because it was claimed that Karl Rove was involved in these ugly incidents. Rove’s attorneys and Justice Department officials tried to separate the firings from the Siegelman case so as to intimidate witnesses who had testified about both matters. That tactic would have produced sensitive information that Rove could have used.
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Scott Horton, a law professor who has written about the case in Harpers, said he found someone within the prosecution’s ranks who was afraid to provide information about the effort to jail Siegelman. The source said, “ you don’t understand, these people would kill me if they have to keep the lid on this.” With respect to the DOJ in Washington, , “They’d be happy to learn that I was dead.” Horton thinks that David Margolas, Holter’s Deputy Attorney General, is the problem.
There were so many questions about the Siegelman case that one would expect Eric Holder to take a second look at it. Instead, he ordered Elena Kegan, the new Solicitor General, to oppose Siegelman’s effort to obtain a new trial. She did so, claiming on November 13, 2009, that Siegelman’s “corrupt intent” had been proven. There had been no proof unless one takes the assumption of the judge and jury that it existed as proof. Perhaps Kegan cannot be blamed for taking this position. She was following orders and there are still many Bush hires in the department, some of whom could have helped write her brief. Maybe she and her aides were thinking about a position they later took in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee and Harrington that people do not have a constitutional protection against being framed.
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The Obama administration and Holder have kept the 93 Bush U.S. Attorneys in their jobs until successors have been confirmed. That has been a very difficult process because Republicans have worked hard to delay the confirmations. To date, only 57 replacements have been confirmed, and Obama has had to drop a nominee in Utah and replace him with a Republican. Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby have blocked the candidate nominated to replace Mrs. Canary. Matthew Hard remains an assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham.
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Donald C. Swift is a retired history professor and former treasurer of CALL, an ecumenical social justice organization in Erie, PA.
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