Whistle-Blower Jill Simpson Issues Rare Public Statement
by Glynn Wilson
In response to a new story in The Huffington Post Wednesday about a conflict of interest on the part of the judge who presided in the federal case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, attorney and whistle-blower Jill Simpson issued a rare, lengthy public statement today calling on the Obama Justice Department to immediately set aside the convictions of Siegelman and release his co-defendant Richard Scrushy from prison.
In her statement, included in full in the comments below, she details misdeeds on the part of the Bush Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division, including hiding evidence, and comes to this conclusion.
“As a result of these misdeeds the DOJ should immediately release Mr. Scrushy and file motions to set aside the convictions. To do anything less is just plain wrong,” she said. “It is important for our Justice Department to seek Justice, not just to seek to win. Justice will only be served at this point by the release of Mr. Scrushy and by the convictions being set aside.”
Based on her research into the case, and an affidavit filed by another attorney named Paul Weeks, she says once again that Fuller had a conflict of interest that was never disclosed to Siegelman’s attorneys and that he should have recused himself form sitting in judgment in the case.
She revealed her knowledge of a conflict of interest on the part of Judge Fuller to me in the very first story written about this nearly two years ago.
Weeks detailed a political vendetta on the part of Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller against Siegelman dating back to Siegelman’s term as governor and Fuller’s days as a local district attorney from Enterprise, all in an affidavit that was in the possession of the Bush Justice Department but completely ignored by the Public Integrity Division investigating the case.
“The time has come for those at the Department of Justice to admit their wrong doings by accepting responsibility for not providing the Weeks affidavit, and for allowing an attorney who is supposed to be over investigating a complaint on a judge to defend that judge in another matter without ever disclosing his conflict,” she said.
She indicated she was exercising her First Amendment right as a citizen to speak out on the injustice that has occurred at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Siegelman-Scrushy case because it was the right thing to do.
“Not to speak out in my opinion would be wrong because it will allow this ridiculous injustice to continue,” she said.
From his reporting on the case, attorney and investigative reporter Andrew Kreig has stored a number of the documents in the case on his Web site, including some of the most relevant exhibits here.
© 2009 – 2015, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.
