Siegelman '60 Minutes' Segment to Run THIS Sunday!
February 20th, 2008 |
| Glynn Wilson |
| Don Siegelman: Political prisoner? |
by Glynn Wilson
The much anticipated segment on the CBS News magazine show “60 Minutes” about the political prosecution of Don Siegelman will run this Sunday, according to reliable sources, on the former Alabama governor’s 62nd birthday and his 8th month in a Louisiana prison.
North Alabama lawyer Jill Simpson, the whistleblower who revealed the phone call that led to a Congressional investigation in the Siegelman case in a sworn affidavit, said in an interview she was pleased the show is finally going to air.
“I feel very happy now that we know for sure the show is going to run, after reading all the stories about it,” she said. “I think after people watch the show they will see that Don Siegelman is America’s number one political prisoner.”
She said while some stories on some blogs had indicated that pressure had been brought to bear on “CBS corporate” by some Republicans, including some in the White House, Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Senator Jeff Sessions, she never believed they would be able to stop the show from airing.
“Working with the ’60 Minutes’ people was wonderful,” she said. “I knew all along they could not be pressured by anyone and I never had any doubt they would run the show.”
The show’s producers took their time putting the segment together, she said, so that they would be able to make it a “signature piece” of the highest quality. It could run as long as 12-15 minutes, she said, which would make it one of the longest TV magazine stories ever to air on the show or any other of its kind.
“They got all the details of the entire story,” she said. “They took the time to start at the beginning, get all the details and tell it to the end.”
This is also now being reported simultaneously in New York lawyer Scott Horton’s “No Comment” blog column at Harpers.org.
I am advised by CBS News that their long-awaited feature dealing with the trial of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman will air on the next 60 Minutes program, on Sunday, February 24. I am told by people who have seen it that this is one of the best pieces of domestic exposé journalism the 60 Minutes team has put together in the last several years. Mark your calendar and if you’re out, this is the time to master the Tivo or the VCR record function.
Siegelman Asks Again for Appeal Bond
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is now reporting that Siegelman’s attorneys have filed a new motion asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to order Siegelman released on an appeal bond, saying Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller made numerous errors when he refused to release the former governor from prison while he appeals his questionable conviction on bribery charges.
A jury that was hung for days finally convicted Siegelman under a dynamite charge from judge Fuller for allegedly being involved in a scheme to appoint HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy to a state hospital board in exchange for two $250,000 checks to help pay off the debt on a campaign to pass a state lottery. The lottery campaign failed due the undue influence of convicted lobbyest Jack Abramoff and disgraced former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, who took money from Native American Tribes in Texas and Mississippi to kill the lottery plan and other casinos in Louisiana and Alabama.
Vince Kilborn, an attorney for Siegelman, said there was a substantial reason to believe Siegelman’s appeal would succeed, in part because there was no “quid pro quo” in the hospital board appointment, and because the charges were filed against Siegelman after the federal statute of limitations had passed.
“Our beloved governor needs to be out until they hear his appeal,” Kilborn said. “He’s still serving time for what we believe was no crime.”
More Political Indictments Expected
In a related story, there is a report circulating in Montgomery legal circles that U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, a Bush appointee, plans to issue and serve more indictments on Democrats in the Alabama Legislature in the days after the “60 Minutes” show airs.
Sources say perhaps nine Democrats will be dragged from the floor of the Legislature in handcuffs, and that the Alabama wing of the Bush Justice Department is trying to include one Republican lawmaker among the indictments to make it appear the two-year college probe – reported on ad nauseum by Alabama’s corporate, chain press – is non-partisan.
Related Stories
Siegelman 60 Minutes Update
‘60 Minutes’ Source Confirms Locust Fork Journal Story
Siegelman ‘60 Minutes’ Story IS NOT DEAD!
Jill Simpson’s Affidavit May Help Justice Prevail in the Siegelman, Scrushy Case
Justice Off the Tracks in Alabama
The Nation: A Whistleblower’s Tale
Comments
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February 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Good job Glynn, great scoop. The world is sitting on the edge for the 12-15 minutes of must see TV. This is truly a phenomenal piece of journalism.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Thanks. Wait until you see The Nation follow-up…
February 21st, 2008 at 8:19 am
I guess McCain did not want to use his 60 Minutes interview this weekend. Wonder why?
February 21st, 2008 at 9:35 am
Maybe that story in the New York Times about his relationship with a lobbyest? See the Locust Fork World News…
February 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
It amazes me that this man is in jail. I believe was set upon several years ago to smear his reputation to keep him from running for the Presidency. This is typical behavior by the Bush administration. Put your foes in jail under trumped up charges and just ignore due process.
Siegleman did nothing different than former Governor Fob James (Republican, of course) who also appointed Richard Schrushy to the same post.
Wake up America!!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
On one of the days I was watching the trial, Elmer(?) Harris the former head of Alabama Power was testifying. The prosecution was trying to point out how different Siegelman’s behavior was and asked Harris if he had ever offered Governor Riley money to do anything. Harris said yes, I offered him a million dollars to fix the mess down at Auburn. The prosecution immediately moved on.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Now that is funny, Jim. Maybe that part-time Auburn prof. can speak to that.
Now I guess you have to be a Riley clone as well as a Bush clone to get hired down there for anything, eh? Not to mention a card carrying member of the Federalist Society.
But not for long. As soon as the new prez and Congress take over next January, there are going to be a lot of Republicans heading to jail – or Paraguay. If they blow their noses wrong I say we lock them all up and let them private contractors who now run the overcrowded prison system have their way with them. Payback’s a bitch : )
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Glynn has done a great job on this along with the gutsy whistleblower Jill Simpson.
Don Siegelman’s political imprisonment – and that’s what he is suffering through – is another glaring indictment of the “imperial presidency.”
Although Bush is an egregious executive violator of the Bill of Rights in quite awhile, he joins a notorious little club which includes Franklin Roosevelt who put thousands of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, Woodrow Wilson who jailed dissidents opposed to World War II, and of course Dick Nixon.
Siegelman is a victim of a system which now gives virtually autocratic power to the president, an office intended to be far, far less important and in fact, intended to be less powerful than Congress by the framers of the Constitution.
Don deserves an immediate, complete and full pardon – actually, he deserves another day in court so that his conviction can be reversed as a horrible miscarriage of justice, courtesy Bush and Gonzales.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Quick followup: Wilson jailed dissidents during World War I, not II. And Bush is “the most egregious violator” in quite awhile.
This is what happens when I drink the wrong brand of coffee, which I did this morning.
Anyway, cheers for what Glynn has helped bring about in the Siegelman case.