The 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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A broad coalition of organizations and individuals launched a “Restore Justice At Justice” campaign today to demand redress for all those politically prosecuted under the Bush Justice Department, beginning with former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and Paul Minor of Mississippi.

On Wednesday, a this group of organizations and individuals dedicated to an honest and accountable government launched a new Web site at RestoreJusticeAtJustice.com, a campaign to clean up the Department of Justice’s sad record of political prosecutions under the Bush Administration.

These organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of members, have a strong track record of spurring action on crucial issues. The coalition has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, available on the Restore Justice At Justice website, requesting that he quickly investigate and identify those targeted, and vacate their convictions, beginning with Alabama ex-Governor Don Siegelman and Attorney Paul Minor.

The coalition asserts that under the Bush administration, the Department of Justice was driven by ideology, and prosecutions were often used to settle scores and intimidate the opposition. The GOP, at the direction of Karl Rove, used the DOJ to target political enemies including Democratic contributors and those who were a threat to GOP electoral gains and big business interests. The Department was used as an arm of the White House to destroy these Democrats. This political profiling resulted in the criminal prosecution of many on the GOP list, including Siegelman and Minor.

“Last week, Attorney General Holder ordered the dismissal of charges against Senator Ted Stevens because of prosecutorial misconduct,” said coalition spokesperson Brad Friedman. “Because targeted political prosecutions also constitute prosecutorial misconduct, AG Holder should apply the same standard to Siegelman, Minor, and all the others identified as targeted by the Bush DOJ,” said Friedman. “Siegelman and Minor were targets of political profiling, which is as unjust as racial profiling. President Obama and Attorney General Holder promised to return justice to the Justice Department and free the Department from politics. We demand that they do so.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the signers at RestoreJusticeAtJustice.com, has stated publicly that “Paul Minor is an innocent man” who was targeted by Karl Rove, prosecuted by “crooked Justice Department prosecutors,” and sentenced to “a breathtaking 11-year sentence for non-violent, white collar crimes he did not commit,” while Minor’s wife of 41 years lies in a hospital dying from cancer, unable “to utter the word l-o-v-e to her husband.”

Kennedy summarizes the case this way: “Karl Rove’s crooked henchmen at the U.S. Justice Department have turned this dignified gentleman’s life into a horrible ordeal that is a disgrace to American democracy.”

**Late Monday, Sylvia Minor died without her husband by her side after the DOJ opposed Minor’s bail pending appeal and a compassionate furlough.

The campaign is spearheaded by VelvetRevolution.us, a national non-profit affiliated with over 150 organizations. The coalition urges other organizations that care about justice to sign on to this campaign by sending an email to RestoreJusticeAtJustice(at)velvetrevolution.us. Individuals can sign on at RestoreJusticeAtJustice.com.

Here at the Locust Fork News-Journal, with our extensive coverage of the Siegelman case and long-standing editorial opposition to Bush administration’s policies on this and other issues, join in the campaign today and urge readers to sign on as well.

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