WASHINGTON, D.C. — An attempt to silence Alabama gubernatorial candidate Bill Johnson has been launched by his own county’s Republican Party, and a non-profit group in the nation’s capitol is calling for an investigation, according to a press release issued late Monday night.

Glynn Wilson

Former ADECA director Bill Johnson during Bob Riley’s 2006 race for governor in the campaign office in Montgomery.

Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010, is banned from speaking at GOP events in Alabama for blowing the whistle on current Republican Alabama Governor Bob Riley.

The RestoreJusticeAtJustice.com campaign calls for full Department of Justice and Congressional investigations into the conflicts of interest raised by Bill Johnson.

“This is not the first time that Bob Riley has been tied to corruption,” said Restore Justice spokesperson and attorney Kevin Zeese. “His name keeps popping up for his involvement with Jack Abramoff, bags of cash payoffs from Indian casino interests, unethical political patronage, manipulation of his 2002 election, and the targeting of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.”

Last year, Johnson became aware of possible conflicts of interest on the part of the Governor involving the giving of favorable contracts to close relatives and accepting money from Indian tribes involved with gambling while opposing gambling efforts by other parties. As a cabinet member, Johnson was required under Alabama law to report any perceived or actual conflicts of interest.

Having both a legal and moral obligation, he made the difficult decision to put aside all party affiliations and friendships and report these conflicts to the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Northern District, Alabama, as well as the FBI. He also left the governor’s office.

Upon announcing his candidacy for governor last June, Johnson immediately began receiving a series of threatening letters — culminating in a death threat — that he believes were related to his knowledge and reporting of Riley’s wrongdoing. In order to stop the increasingly serious threats that had become a growing concern to his wife and children, Johnson went public with the facts and called for an investigation by the Alabama Attorney General and local district attorney’s office. A link to Johnson’s request for an investigation, a summary of the charges, and copies of the threatening letters can be found online at BillJohnson.Org. .

Among the conflicts raised by Johnson are concerns that the millions of dollars received by the 2002 Riley Campaign for Governor from Mississippi Indian casino owners are shaping the Governor’s position on gaming in Alabama and are the catalyst for Riley’s 2008 launch of an anti-gambling task force. These types of “contributions” precipitated the Jack Abramoff scandal and are still under investigation by the Department of Justice and United States Congress.

In addition to the threatening letters to Johnson’s home, a new threat against Johnson has emerged from the Alabama GOP itself in the form of a formal resolution banning him from speaking as a GOP gubernatorial candidate. The GOP resolution, which can be found here, states that because Johnson raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest by a “hard-working and popular” governor, Johnson should be banned from speaking as a GOP candidate.

The resolution, sent to executive committees in all 67 Alabama counties, originated in Johnson’s home county which is led by a hand-picked Riley supporter.

Now, Zeese said, “he is trying to silence Bill Johnson, a close insider who witnessed first hand Bob Riley’s corrupt activities. Johnson’s allegations appear to indicate blatant criminal conduct and obstruction of justice in violation of federal statutes. Clearly, because of Alabama’s sad history of corruption and political protection, we demand a high level criminal investigation authorized by the Attorney General.”

Johnson is a former cabinet member in the Riley administration, where he was director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), a large state agency managing over $240 million per year in federal and state grants.

Johnson also led Riley’s grassroots efforts for his successful bids for congress in 1996 and governor in both 2002 and 2006. Johnson has worked closely with the governor for over a decade.

We first wrote about this back in November.

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Tags: Alabama Governor's Race 2010, Bill Johnson, DC Group Demands Investigation of Gov. Bob Riley

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Elections 2010, GOP Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.