Coalition Calls for Siegelman Charges to be Dropped
July 23rd, 2009The Restore Justice At Justice Coalition calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss all charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
The Restore Justice At Justice campaign, representing hundreds of organizations with more than one million members, issued a press release today calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately dismiss criminal charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman “in light of the latest astounding evidence filed in his case attesting to gross violations of the rule of law by federal prosecutors.”
Specifically, the organization points out, the government’s chief witness in the case, Nick Bailey, has sworn in an affidavit that “prosecutors told him what to say, made him repeat it until he got it right, threatened him if he did not say it, and lied to the federal judge presiding over the case about his testimony.”
Moreover, Mr. Bailey attested that government prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence and told him to hide a three ring binder with all of his copious notes of meetings with government agents and officials. Mr. Bailey has provided that binder to his attorney who has shared much of it with Mr. Siegelman’s attorneys to support the affidavit. Mr. Bailey’s associate and a professional legal investigator also provided affidavits supporting these assertions.
“There is now so much evidence of clear conflicts of interest, overt partisan political prosecutorial targeting, failures to recuse by at least one conflicted prosecutor as well as the judge in the Siegelman case, evidence withheld from the defense team, and now evidence of the coaching and strong-arming of witnesses in exchange for a lighter prison sentence and a promise to conceal embarrassing personal information, it all makes the prosecutorial misconduct in the case of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens — a Republican whose case was dropped by Obama’s Justice Deptartment shortly after they came to power — look like jaywalking,” says Brad Friedman.
“Prosecutorial misconduct has completely tainted Mr. Siegelman’s case,” he said. “His conviction must therefore be dismissed with prejudice by the Attorney General himself in order to correct a manifest injustice, restore integrity to the Department of Justice, and send a clear message that such reprehensible conduct will not be tolerated. Restore Justice At Justice calls on Eric Holder to act with dispatch to remove the stain and burden of an improper conviction from the shoulders of Mr. Siegelman.”
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Tags: Coalition Calls for Siegelman Charges to be Dropped, Restore Justice At Justice
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:24 am
Wasn’t the redoubtable Karl Rove behind all the idiot moves of the former president? Haven’t all his moves been seen, finally, as lies and innuendo?
Wasn’t Rove’s entire career based essentially on dirty tricks towards his opponents?
Wasn’t Rove called to testify before the Congress concerning his serial lies?
Didn’t he snub Congress on many occasions, having only recently been deposed yet the findings were kept secret?
Isn’t the case against Siegelman mostly based on Roveian advice?
It appears, therefore, that the wrong man is in the dock.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:32 am
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes and yes.
His deposition will be made public eventually, and he may be called to testify in a public hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
Yes, and yes…
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 am
The big problem for Holder in this is that if he does drop the charges he knows he will then be called upon to initiate a full investigation of the prosecutors, marshalls, Alabama AG’s office, possibly the governor of Alabama and his son, Republican officials in Alabama, the judge, members of the jury and just about everyone else that was involved, some of whom belong in jail themselves. And of course this is just one of many similar cases. I read recently that Holder already has so much on his plate that his hair has turned fully grey in the past few months. He would probably rather wait and let things sort themselves out.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
Let’s hope that Holder has the intenstinal fortitude to drop the charges against Siegelman, come what may afterward in terms of being forced to investigate politicians who may have been in on the plan to wrongfully prosecute the former governor.
It’s time for all this dirty laundry from the Bush era to be washed and aired. Messes need to be cleaned up, not covered up.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:04 am
I certainly agree. The problem is that the Obama administration has stated its intent to press forward, forgetting those things that lie behind.