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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/20/09

Testimony Overlooked? Former Head of Siegelman's Transition Team clears Siegelman: "There was no bribe"


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Alabama Republican Elmer Harris, the former head of Siegelman's transition team and former CEO of Alabama Power, says in a recent interview with 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley that former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman didn't accept a bribe.  In fact he states "There was no bribe." 

Harris explained he never testified because no one had ever asked him to, not the DOJ, not the US Attorneys, NO ONE.  He says his testimony would have cleared Siegelman.  Check out Harris' brief 60 second interview which I stumbled upon the 60 Minutes website and was never aired on 60 Minutes.  If it aired on CBS Evening News April 6th, most viewers would have missed it:

 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3996872n%3fsource=search_video

CBS Evening News most recently aired an update April 7th on the Siegelman case by 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley who interviews Siegelman which didn't include Elmer Harris' statements:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3998404n%3fsource=search_video

If you missed the original 60 Minutes segment that was finally aired on February 24th (same night as the Academy Award Oscars) go to:

 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3870545n%3fsource=search_video     

The Court of Appeals turned down Siegelman's appeal May 15th and the DOJ prosecutors have announced they are planning on nearly tripling the sentence from 7 years to almost 21 years.

http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/44788997.html 

Siegelman faces resentencing and returning back to federal prison unless enough pressure can be put on Eric Holder's DOJ to throw out this case.

So we need your help. 

Please call the White House and leave a comment: 202-456-1111 or toll free number: 800-833-6354

OR call Eric Holder’s office at  202-353-1555   or email the DOJ: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov 

Lastly corruption appears to abound in this case:  namely Judge Fuller should recuse himself because he had an ax to grind against Siegelman and US Attorney Leura Canary, who is married to Alabama Republican Operative and Kingmaker Bill Canary, should be removed as a US Attorney since the demands to triple the sentencing are coming from her office:

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/05/judge-in-siegelman-case-faces-renewed.html

"Meanwhile, a new investigation shows that Doss Aviation, with Judge Fuller as majority owner, has been awarded more than $300 million in federal contracts since Fuller began presiding over the Siegelman case in 2005."

For more information see Thom Hartmann’s interview with Siegelman:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/interview-with-former-ala_b_99338.html 

[Hartmann:] ... And, in fact, if I understand this correctly, you were being prosecuted by a woman whose husband was the campaign manager for the Republican who ran against you for governor and in the middle of the night in one county because of a voting machine malfunction after the election had apparently already been called in your favor, suddenly in the middle of the night, when there were nobody except Republicans standing around, they discovered a couple thousand more votes, and said: "Oh, yeah, no, no! Don Siegelman actually lost." Do I have that right? 

DS: You have it right. They electronically shifted votes from my column to my Republican opponent's column. 

TH: To Bob Riley's column. 

DS: I believe, yes, to Bob Riley's column. And oddly enough, it didn't effect a single down-ballot race. They took five thousand or six thousand votes of mine and shifted it over to Bob Riley, and when they counted everybody else's votes, the shift was at the top which, logically, would have made a difference at the bottom...

 
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I am a member of several Democratic clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area who did alot of volunteer work for the Nov 2004 Kerry campaign and became outraged when I learned that Kerry didn't "lose" but had his election stolen by the GOP machine in (more...)
 
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