Karl Rove had Don Siegelman in his sites and pushed the Justice Dept to prosecute him

[ViolaLee]

I noticed our new member Wndrtch is way behind on the attorney firings scandal. There are too many details to catch him up on completely, but here's a new twist on the story.

Karl Rove has his fingerprints all over this story about the White House and the GOP getting involved in the Justice Dept. Jill Simpson, a Republican lawyer describes a telephone conversation she had with Alabama's leading GOP strategist said Rove was intervening with Justice to get the Siegelman case going.

Simpson said in June that she heard a close associate of Rove say that the White House political adviser “had spoken with the Department of Justice” about “pursuing” Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama, with help from two of Alabama’s U.S. attorneys. Siegelman was later indicted on 32 counts of corruption, convicted on seven of them, and is currently serving an 88-month sentence in Federal prison.

This kind of thing is at the base of the scandal. The White House has strongarmed the Justice Dept into bringing charges against Democrats. Republican Senators have strongarmed the Justice dept into bringing charges against Democrats. When US attorney Iglesias refused to be strongarmed, he was fired. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, who called Iglesias and tried to get him to prosecute a Democrat before the election, has decided not to run again. He's one of the many Republicans who won't be staying in congress next session. But that's another story. This one's about Rove and his bully tactics and unethical actions within the Justice Dept, which is supposed to be NON POLITICAL.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001396

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Wednesday released an interview with GOP lawyer Dana Jill Simpson implicating former White House adviser Karl Rove in the prosecution and conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) on corruption charges.

In a closed-door interview with committee staff, Simpson recalled how Rob Riley, current Gov. Bob Riley’s (R) son, told her about Rove’s role in a plan to prosecute Siegelman if he did not back down from contesting the 2001 gubernatorial election results that handed the office to Riley.

According to the transcript, Simpson described a 2005 conversation with Rob Riley, who told her that Rove had contacted the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice to press for further prosecution of Siegelman. She said Rob Riley also recounted how the case would be assigned to a federal judge who “hated” Siegelman and would “hang Don Siegelman.” http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-lawyer-ties-rove-to-siegelman-case-2007-10-10.html

The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on what some Democrats are calling selective prosecutions by the Justice Department, apparently aimed at helping Republican candidates get elected. Of particular interest is the prosecution of Don Siegelman, former Democratic governor of Alabama. He is in prison on corruption charges, but Democrats say his case was politically motivated.

Listen to the story on NPR here. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15546041&ft=1&f=1001)

Republicans viewed Siegelman as a threat. They thought he was a rising star, a new Bill Clinton. They needed to take him out.

[ECW]

The Alabama Democrats I know are waiting for some measure of revenge on this one. Either an indictment of Rove or a vindication of Siegleman or both. Nothing like corrupt GOP officials to spur the base, eh?

[Truth_and_Power]

I think he probably had him in his sights, unless he had him featured on his webpage or camping out on his property. *tag* I'm sure you'll get me back for that soon.

[lily]

Siegelman was later indicted on 32 counts of corruption, convicted on seven of them, and is currently serving an 88-month sentence in Federal prison.

I'm not sure what you are saying.........are you saying these charges were made up?

[ViolaLee]

No, I have no idea if the charges are for real or not. I'm saying that the Bush administration is throwing their weight around where it's unethical and illegal. The Executive branch is not supposed to run the Justice Department. They are supposed to be seperate entities. When the executive branch starts telling the Justice Department who to go after, our government might as well be the mafia.

[Drocket]

More importantly, the fact that politics played a role in deciding what cases to go after tends to imply that politics played a role in what cases to NOT go after. For example, the attorney who brought down Duke Cunningham on corruption charges was removed from their post directly afterwards, before a deeper investigation into the matter could happen (meaning the Cunningham's corrupt associates got a reprieve.) The Justice Dept. claims that the firing had nothing to do with Cunningham's prosecution. As more and more evidence builds up that the Justice Dept. was being run purely as a political machine, though, that story looks worse and worse.

[dgun]

I'm not sure what you are saying.........are you saying these charges were made up?

I'm from Alabama folks. And yes the charges were bullshit.

This was the political equivalent of a mob hit.

Siegelman is not a complete angel but the things he was busted for (7 years in a federal Pen) are things just about any big name politician in Alabama could go down for.

Scrushy (who should have gone to jail for the Healthsouth book cooking fiasco but got out of it) was given a seat on an influential regulatory board that oversees hospitals (this was before the Healthsouth issues come to light).

He was essentially given this seat in exchange for a large contribution to the Siegleman campaign. And this kind of crap is not right, to be certain, but is the state of our corrupt political culture. The fact is, proving quid pro quo in these cases is all but impossible. But the Feds made it stick.

The fact that it was a political hit was obvious to everyone in Alabama. The 2002 Alabama governor’s race was a state version of what the whole country went through in the 2000 presidential race. Very close race, allegations of corruption in the vote counting, challenges to the results of the election, etc.

The Republican candidate won the race, and Rove and his quacks immediately started hatching plans to get Sigleman out of the next governor’s race.

As it turns out, Riley has been more of a moderate and took a stance against the hard religious right and some other radical elements in Alabama, and has done a pretty good job. And no one believes Riley was at all involved in this, byw.

Meanwhile, a man who himself brought two large auto manufactures to Alabama sits in a federal penitentiary because Bush and his gang of amoral criminal thug attorneys think nothing of damaging our democracy by using the DOJ for short term political gains.

I hope there is a hell and I hope these motherfuckas burn in it.

[ViolaLee]

Thanks for the background dgun! There are a lot of details to learn about this case. I only really knew the basics. Maybe congress can get his conviction overturned with the hearings coming up soon. Gonzales really needs to be tried for his crimes. Rove too. The whole damn gang of crooks actually.

[dgun]

Maybe congress can get his conviction overturned with the hearings coming up soon.

There is such a thing as a congressional pardon. But it is legislation and would be subjected to the veto power. And I doubt they could get the votes to override the veto.

[lily]

Thanks dgun.......I didn't know the whole story.