The news on the political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman just gets more interesting as sentencing approaches.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman

The Alabama bureau of the Associated Press finally got around to obtaining the Jill Simpson affidavit, the one linking Bush political aide Karl Rove to the Siegelman prosecution, and moved a story on the wires about it at around 9 p.m. tonight.

In the story, Ms. Simpson is identified as “a Republican lawyer (from Rainsville) who supports Alabama’s Ten Commandments judge” who said Wednesday she implicated White House aide Karl Rove in the federal prosecution of former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman “because she feared justice had not been served.”

Ms. Simpson said in the affidavit that Republican operative Bill Canary told her and others in a telephone conference call in November 2002 that he had spoken with Rove, referred to in the sworn document as “Karl,” and had been assured the Justice Department was pursuing Siegelman.

Rove has been implicated in the Bush Justice Department scandals involving the firing of eight U.S. attorneys by their Bush appointed boss, Alberto Gonzales, who is still under investigation by Congress and an independent Justice Department review panel.

Siegelman said he has been on the opposite side of Rove politically for more than a decade, “so it does not suprprise me at all that he has been placed at the scene of the crime plotting for my political destruction.”

Simpson said in the affidavit that she was a campaign worker for Riley in northeast Alabama and that the conference call occurred on Nov. 18, 2002, amid concerns about the recount, a possible Democratic dirty trick in her area and Siegelman being a problem for Riley in the future, according to the AP. She gave the affidavit in front of a notary public on May 21, she said, because she was concerned the convictions of Siegelman and Scrushy “might have been a miscarriage of justice,” although she has not filed the affidavit with any court.

“I believe honestly that every defendant, rich or poor, has a right to a fair trial,” Simpson said. “That’s why I did what I did.”

She said she has been a Republican for years. Although she worked for Riley in 2002, last year she worked in the campaign of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, Alabama’s Ten Commandments judge, who has been a critic of Riley and mounted an unsuccessful challenge against him last year in the Republican Primary.

Simpson claims in the affidavit that Riley’s son, Rob Riley, asked about Siegelman being a problem in the future and was told by Canary “not to worry about Don Siegelman that ‘his girls would take care of him.’” The affidavit says Canary identified “his girls” as his wife, Leura Canary, the U.S. attorney for the middle district of Alabama in Montgomery, and Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney in the northern district in Birmingham.

“Rob Riley then asked if he was sure ‘these girls’ could take care of Don Siegelman and William ‘Bill’ Canary told him not to worry that he had already gotten it worked out with Karl and Karl had spoken with the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice was already pursuing Don Siegelman,” the affidavit says.

All of this has was already reported June 1 by Time magazine, The New York Times - and the Locust Fork News and Journal.

Simpson told the AP she was certain “Karl” was a reference to Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s chief political strategist. She said Canary had mentioned him often.

Four key figures in the case continue to deny the charges made in Ms. Simpson’s affidavit.

Louis Franklin, the chief prosecutor in the Siegelman and Scrushy case, still claims Karl Rove had no role whatsoever in bringing about the Siegelman investigation or prosecution. Canary told the AP Wednesday he had no memory of the phone conversation or of meeting Simpson. Rob Riley said he did not recall Canary ever making the statements attributed to him. Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts is also named in the affidavit, but he too denies being a party to the conversation.

Simpson said Wednesday that she has phone records from the period Nov. 13 to Nov. 18 to help support her affidavit.

Mark Bollinger, a former aide to a Democratic attorney general and a friend of Simpson’s, also has signed an affidavit stating that Simpson has told him of the phone call. He said he understands why Simpson waited to reveal details of the call.

“If she had said it in 2002, nobody would have believed her,” Bollinger told the AP. He said that has changed with the prosecution of Siegelman in Birmingham and Montgomery and events in Washington, where the Bush administration has been shown to use politics rather than legal qualifications in appointments and firings at the U.S. Department of Justice.

At the time of the alleged call, Siegelman was seeking a recount in his 2002 re-election bid, which he narrowly lost to Republican Bob Riley. Last year Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy were convicted on federal bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud charges following an investigation that began in 2002. Siegelman also was convicted on a separate obstruction of justice charge, and both are scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

In light of Simpson’s claims, Scrushy is now asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to remove U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller from sentencing the two. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 26.

Tags: HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy On Trial

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