Subject: Thank you, Marta, both for your work on this column and rel

Comment:

See Original Content on OpEd News in article titled "Andrew Kreig on John H. Durham's "Russiagate" Report: A "Corrupt, Cruel Fraud""

Thank you, Marta, both for your work on this column and related matters, and for noting the extraordinary reporting of Joan Brunwasser on this. A rare dimension she brought along with the main story was the ripple effects, like the extraordinary vengeance of authorities in threatening and sometimes implementing long and unwarranted prison terms for witnesses who refused to help frame Siegelman and the other main defendants. One of them, Richard Scrushy, refused to perjure himself, served more than five years in prison, lost control while in prison of the billion dollar company he had founded, and then wrote a powerful memoir upon his release from prison, "It Should Not Happen In America." Joan Brunwasser's reporting focused heavily also on a relatively minor witness, Gary White, another Republican who refused to perjure himself to keep prosecutors happy, and the ordeal in prison he and his financially ruined family had to endure when he was intentionally kept far away from home to make their prison visits needlessly harsh.

And, for those who care about elections, it's notable that Siegelman's 2002 reelection was thwarted when three thousand votes were flipped in a Republican county after initial results were reported, making it one of the first such documented scandals involving electronic vote flipping in a major election.

Regarding the Connecticut General Assembly, my sourcing indicates they were clueless about Dannehy's record, underscoring the demise of regional news coverage that should have documented all of this through the years so everyone would know. My background includes 14 years working for the state's largest newspaper, the Hartford Courant, as well as press secretary for the House Speaker. That's a major reason I wrote this book -- as a warning to what happens next.