Gov. Don Siegelman was once the most popular political figure in the state of Alabama. The only public official to serve in all four of the top elected offices of his state, he was targeted by the highly politicized Bush Department of Justice. After an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute him in federal court in Birmingham, Gov. Siegelman was ultimately convicted of bribery and corruption and sentenced to prison. He is currently out on appeal. Welcome back to OpEdNews, Governor. You and I last touched base in mid-August. Can you bring our readers up to speed on your appeal?
I should hear "yes" or "no" from the US Supreme Court in December or early January. I'm going to DC today, [Thursday the 12th] to talk with another lawyer whom I hope will join my team to argue my case before the USSC [United States Supreme Court] if they should grant our petition.
I
will also be working with my Georgetown Law classmate, Peter
Sissman, who has taken the lead in our motion for a new trial which is
now pending before Judge Fuller (who enhanced my sentence for speaking
out about the political origins of my prosecution, and who had me
handcuffed, shackled and put into solitary confinement in a maximum
security prison).
While this effort is moving slowly, waiting on the USSC, Peter has found more evidence (smoking gun emails) which proves the Bush/Rove prosecutor who said she had recused...actually remained involved in the case. This evidence is very important because, as you will remember, my prosecutor's husband was not only my Republican opponent's campaign manager but was also identified by a Republican whistle blower as having talked with Karl Rove about getting the DOJ to prosecute me ("to take care of Siegelman" I think were the exact words used).
I am also trying to get new documents to the HJC [House Judiciary Committee], staff of the Indian Affairs Committee and the Committee on governmental Oversight about new evidence further linking Jack Abramoff to my case. I hope to pique their interest on another avenue to Rove. [See Could Revelations on Campaign Funding Blow the Roof Off GOP Corruption in Alabama?]
With the release of these revelations, are you any more optimistic about the Obama DOJ stepping in on your behalf?
We
will win in the end because we are right on the law. 91 former state
Attorneys General pointed out to the USSC the danger to our democracy
if the ruling is not reversed.
While there have been revelations of gross government misconduct in my case, DOJ seems invested in the current outcome. Professor Bennett Gershman of Pace University
School of Law, a preeminent scholar in the field of prosecutorial
misconduct said in a letter to AG Holder:
"...I have never encountered another
prosecution in which it appears so clearly that the prosecutors were
zealously bent on pursuing an individual, rather than on a crime..."
"As an example of bad faith prosecution, the Siegelman case may be
without parallel." " There is no better example of the corrosive effect
on the reputation of the Department of Justice...than the prosecution
of Don Siegelman."
I can't figure out why OUR President has left Rove prosecutors in to keep making our fight harder. I understood when I was fighting Bush and Rove... but, why now? This has never happened in the history of American politics.
Fortunately,
Chairman Conyers and Members of the House Judiciary Committee have not
quit and on September 25th called on Eric Holder to appoint someone "
with fresh eyes" who is not vested in the outcome to conduct a needed
critical review.
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