In a story originally broken by Shuler in Alabama, Grimes had been the DOJ's top career paralegal its corruption prosecution of Siegelman and Alabama businessman Richard Scrushy, along with several Siegelman aides. The DoJ fired Grimes, a Republican, in June 2009 shortly after she summarized in a letter to Holder her allegations of unprofessional behavior by Middle District U.S. Attorney Leura Canary and the overall Siegelman prosecution.
Canary, a Bush presidential appointee in 2001 and wife of Karl Rove friend and Siegelman opponent William Canary, remains in office despite a U.S. tradition that presidential appointees resign as a matter of honor upon a change of administration. The Obama administration is expected soon to announce a replacement. The leading candidate is reputed to be Alabama attorney George Beck, who has an interest in covering up DoJ misdeeds in the Siegelman case because he represented former gubernatorial aide Nick Bailey, the main prosecution witness.
The CBS show and affidavits in 2009 revealed that authorities pressured Bailey in up to 70 pre-trial interrogations, some at an Air Force base by a DOJ prosecutor who also held a powerful post as an Air Force reserve colonel. The interrogations of Bailey were without required disclosures to the defense and were accompanied by blackmail threats, according to affidavits.
Beck's defenders say has he an impressive resume, and he simply helped his client obtain the best plea bargain deal possible under the circumstances. In this view, prosecutors were determined to pressure his client on separate charges against Bailey in order to win the convictions of Siegelman. The defendant was his state's most prominent Democrat, and also was a key official who stood unwittingly in the way of lucrative deal-making opportunities for those well-connected.
Making of a Whistleblower
Here are highlights of Simpson's courageous role in the Siegelman case, which I have covered closely.
First, she quietly pointed out in early 2007 to Siegelman and Scrushy attorneys that Siegelman's trial judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, was being enriched on the side by $300 million in Bush contracts to a closely held company, Doss Aviation, Inc., that the judge controlled as 44% stockholder (reportedly reduced to 32% later). Most of the contracts were to refuel Air Force tankers and train Air Force pilots. The Doss contracts are nationwide, but Air Force work has particular importance in Alabama's economy, in part because of a pending $35 billion procurement contract for the next generation of mid-air refueling tankers with a potential assembly plant in Mobile.
When Fuller declined to recuse himself before sentencing the defendants Simpson felt as an attorney that she needed prevent injustice at sentencing by stepping forward publicly with an affidavit and later sworn testimony to House Judiciary Committee staff, as well as extensive background information to such journalists as Glynn Wilson, Scott Horton, Wayne Madsen, Adam Zagorin and Shuler.
Also, she swore in formal settings that, among other things, she participated in a 2002 conference call of Republican strategists led by Business Council of Alabama CEO William Canary, who described a plan to eliminate Siegelman from politics with crime charges. She testified also that then-Gov. Bob Riley's son Rob in early 2005 predicted to her an indictment of Siegelman that would be steered to Middle District Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller. Riley told her, she swore, that Fuller "hated" Siegelman and who would "hang" him once an indictment was prepared and he obtained control over the case.
Mark Fuller (photo by Phil Fleming)
Those events unfolded much as described, with Siegelman and Scrushy railroaded into convictions and sentenced to seven-year terms apiece by Fuller. Siegelman, originally put in solitary confinement, was released on bond in March 2008. But that was only after the nationwide outrage from the "60 Minutes" investigation broadcast Feb. 24, 2008 on one of the nation's top-rated shows.
Simpson, accused by her critics of seeking publicity, says that her only other pre-planned interview was with MSNBC on Feb. 25, 2008 -- and even that was merely to use competition to encourage CBS into using its evidence, including the whistleblower footage of her that CBS had recorded the previous September. She says she learned that CBS had informed the still-influential former Bush advisor Karl Rove of the material -- and he had told the network that he didn't believe the story or like it, thus helping discourage any broadcast for many months.
GOP Denies Wrongdoing
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