Do YOU Think Gov. Don Siegelman got a raw deal?

[Octafish]

Last edited Mon Aug 6, 2012, 10:26 PM - Edit history (1)

This fellow is Federal Judge Mark E. Fuller.



The guy is a political enemy of Siegelman who also just happens to have adjudicated his trial and re-conviction.
Here's what the photographer remembers from the day the jury returned its verdict:

Alabama Judicial Scandal Could Taint Many Cases, Not Just Siegelman’s

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Andrew Kreig
Washington's Blog

EXCERPT...

The Siegelman jury provided a mixed verdict on June 15, 2006. Minutes later, the rarely photographed Fuller invited freelance photo-journalist Phil Fleming into judicial chambers to commemorate the occasion.

[font color="red"]Fleming has released to me his copy of the private portrait (shown above). The blunt-speaking Fleming also told me that he advised the judge during the photo-shoot to stifle what Fleming told him was a “Cheshire cat” smile in order to look sufficiently dignified.[/font color]

That implication of bias is congruent with testimony by Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson, who helped make this case nationally famous in 2007 and then later in the 60 Minutes broadcast. Simpson, at right, was a longtime Republican operative (and now a political independent) who says she worked with Karl Rove and others as a confidential opposition researcher while also earning large sums in the government contracts field.

In sworn statements in 2007, she described Republican plots beginning in 2002 whereby the Justice Department would indict Siegelman with the assistance of “Karl” in order to remove the state’s most popular Democrat from politics.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/05/alabama-judicial-scandal-could-taint-many-cases-not-just-siegelmans.html

So. Please, tell. What do you think? [font color="blue"]Do YOU think Gov. Don Siegelman got a raw deal?[/font color]

41 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes.
	41 (100%)
	No.
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	Maybe.
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	I don't know.
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	Who's Don Siegelman?
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	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[madokie]

1. Rove is the fucker that should be in front of a judge

Because of him this injustice continues

[Octafish]

16. Dana Jill Simpson thinks Karl Rove was the ringmaster. After all, he IS Bush's Brain™...

[sabrina 1]

26. Absolutely. And I think this was the second or third attempt to 'get him'.

The first attempt was thrown out of court.

And what's with Congress on this? Didn't they get involved and weren't they made aware of all the corruption in this trial?

What ever happened to Karl Rove's subpoenas btw? Did he just thumb his nose at them and they simply let him walk away?

This has to be one of the most egregious political prosecutions ever and something needs to be done about it.

[nashville_brook]

2. yes, a million times yes.

[Octafish]

17. Fuller oversaw a Federal case against a political enemy, a man of INTEGRITY.

Siegelman made the mistake of being an honest Democrat in an age of warmongers. The scum of the earth "money trumps peace" crowd.

The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller

by Scott Horton
Harpers

EXCERPT...

The recusal motion rested upon details about Fuller’s personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fuller’s recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fuller’s total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fuller’s income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.

In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.

CONTINUED...

DU's running 100-percent pro-Siegelman. Wonder where the rest of the Democrats are? ABCNNBCBSFixedNutsNoiseworks is covering the cheating vampiress.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Hell yes.

[Octafish]

20. They railroaded CIA officer Valerie Plame and Amb. Joe Wilson to keep the Big Lie intact...

...So what's a governor to Them?

Judge Mark E Fuller (Siegelman, Scrushy) GOV. Contracts: Training Saudis and Iranians to Fly

Of course, things are much more, eh, complicated than they seem. What country are we in?

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Exactly.

[abq e streeter]

4. Raw deal is a massive understatement.

Being a political prisoner of Karl Rove leaves the concept of "raw deal" in the dust.

[Octafish]

34. Rove n Gonzo canned 5 GOP US Attorneys who wouldn't ''play ball.'' Holder said, ''OK. No problem.''

Something snapped...

Justice Ends Bush-Era U.S. Attorney Scandal With a Whimper, Not a Prosecution

Andrew Cohen
PoliticsDaily.com

EXCERPT...

For those of you now tuning back in, don't worry. You didn't miss much. The song remains the same. Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, and Karl Rove, the former presidential adviser, fudged and fussed and never fully cooperated with the investigation. The president and vice president were spared the inconvenience even of subpoenas. Former Attorney General Gonzales was reprimanded -- but not officially sanctioned -- by government officials. And he and his sub-cronies, who systematically replaced professional attorneys at the Justice Department with partisan hacks, will not face prosecution (or, evidently, further investigation off Capitol Hill).

SNIP...

The Justice Department eased off this past week -- notifying the world of its intentions through a letter to the lawmakers -- despite an acknowledgment by federal lawyers that there is evidence that the conduct of these men and women was improper -- "inappropriately political" was the euphemism employed. For example, few who saw Gonzales' performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2007 will ever forget it. Yet although the misconduct from high officials damaged the credibility and the reputation of the Justice Department -- it still has not recovered -- there has been no meaningful public accounting from the federal government.

As Harper's magazine contributing editor Scott Horton explained so well: If you are inclined to be dissatisfied with the outcome here, there are plenty of culprits to point at besides the bad actors themselves: It starts with (1) former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who in September 2008 appointed (2) Nora Dannehy, a Republican-appointed federal prosecutor, who immediately limited the scope of the investigation and signed off on last week's coup de grace. Instead of looking into the pattern in the firings -- there were eight in all -- Dannehy narrowed the scope of her work into a focus on the premature firing of David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico. And then there is (3) current Attorney General Eric Holder, who signaled long ago his lack of appetite for re-litigating even the worst legal moments of the Bush era.

SNIP...

Of the scandal itself, Gonzales repeated his long-held story: "I made the decision based upon what I thought was best for the department and for the American people. All these investigations have now confirmed that this was not to influence improperly any ongoing investigation or to punish anyone for political reasons." I guess it all depends upon what your definition of "inappropriately political" is.

SOURCE: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/24/justice-ends-u-s-attorney-scandal-with-a-whimper-not-a-prosecu/

...and too few noticed.

[whatchamacallit]

5. Yeah he got hosed

I think this is the quality of justice most of us can expect from a rotting empire.

[Octafish]

36. Judge Fuller scored a 7.7

Yet, one voice at TheRobingRoom.com noted:

Judge Fuller spoke at a conference recently and continuously berated a certain circuit and to berate the circuit he continuously called the circuit "liberal" as if to be a liberal is to be an incompetent legal mind. Judge Fuller, liberals are the compassionate group of politicians. People living off social security, pension funds, government benefits, have housing, unemployment, student financial aid and so forth are able to SURVIVE because of liberals. In the future, if you speak to a group of lawyers please do not assume that NO liberals are in the audience and don't make the erroneous assumption that being a liberal is a bad thing; I am proud to be a liberal.

SOURCE: http://www.therobingroom.com/Judge.aspx?ID=382

[salin]

6. forgive my language but the phrase "damn straight" ought to be a choice.

During the original trial I followed Scott Horton's reporting. The shock was how little facts seemed to matter in the case - as is still clearly the case. One more example of another branch of government, the judiciary, become so politicized and partisan that justice seems no longer to be a goal or value.

[Octafish]

38. More Scalia-Rehnquist 2000 nonsense: Rove nominated Fuller and Ashcan signed off on his job.

As you've witnessed, Salin, those without integrity took over the courts. Then they locked it in.

Vote machine:

How Republicans hacked the Justice Department

By Scott Horton
Harper's March 2008

EXCERPT...

The Republican project of the past seven years has been to build on that success, to transform the legal apparatus of the United States into an instrument of partisan force. Each step of that transformation has been well reported, but few commentators have noted how those steps have in turn brought about a complete subversion of the original law-enforcement function of the Justice Department. Indeed, the absence of controversy demonstrates precisely how successful the administration has been at mainstreaming its odd notions of justice. And this raises a larger concern.

SNIP...

Subverting an entire legal apparatus requires great effort. Laws must be circumvented, civil servants thwarted, and opposing politicians intimidated into silence. With an election redecided in the courts, though, the Bush team was quick to lock in its gains.

The first step was to establish a bureaucracy more in tune with the new approach. Setting the proper tone would not be simple, though. Justice had long been seen as a prize for loyal movement conservatives as well as for the religious right, and both groups expected the department to be run by ideological warriors willing to risk power in the pursuit of specific policy goals. Key Bush aides wanted Montana’s moderate governor, Mark Racicot, for the top job at Justice, but movement conservatives objected and pushed through their own candidate—former Senator John Ashcroft, an ostentatiously devout evangelical Christian.

Ashcroft eventually would be replaced by Alberto Gonzales, a notably pure specimen of partisanship, but in the meantime the administration faced an even more significant obstacle, which was that installing partisans in career positions is illegal. After a long struggle over a political spoils system that flooded Washington with partisan hacks, Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, which generally required that civil servants be hired on the strength of their professional qualifications and without regard to their party affiliation or political beliefs. And it strengthened that law considerably in 1939, when it passed the Hatch Act, which restricted the involvement of civil servants in partisan political campaigns.

The Bush Justice Department labored to get around these laws in various ways. The Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program at Justice, for instance, has long served as a fast track for students from elite law schools. Under the Bush Administration, however, the hiring shifted from the Ivies to avowedly conservative schools. Regent University Law School, founded by Pat Robertson in 1986, claims to have placed more than 150 of its graduates in positions with the Bush Administration. Regent, which ranks among the bottom tier of law schools, struggled to secure an accreditation with the American Bar Association, just as its alumni struggle to find employment. Hiring from fourth-rate schools is perfectly legal, of course, and the practice has the additional benefit of creating a new class of grateful civil servants.

CONTINUED...

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/0081943

Why these servants to crooks, war profiteers and warmongers and traitors remain free shames me as an American.

[northoftheborder]

7. I cannot understand why Obama did not replace many or all AG's when he came into office.

[freshwest]

9. How do you feel that would affected Siegelman?

[Octafish]

13. Prosecutor Leura Canary stayed on for almost three years.

A fine repug of the neocon school.

http://donsiegelman.org/Pages/topics/Players/Attorneys/attorneys_Leura_Canary.html

[freshwest]

24. Wow, I was just looking for you. Stumbled on your reference to the BFEE on DU2. Awesome thread!

Knew most of it,. but hadn't seen so much put together in just one place before. And thanks for link on this.

I saw one thread on the board about Siegelman and I think the name Scrushy hit a poster who said Siegelman got what was coming to him. I remember that scandal and it was infuriating. This is so obvious, like the Ken Starr prosecutions.

It's troubling some states are so corrupted with the Repugs, I don't know how we can ever get them turned back again to any level of honest government or courts. In the past there were GOP AG's that resisted corruption, but it's so dirty, it's real bananarepublicanism in full stink. They've destroyed just about everything they touched.

The connections in your BFEE piece is never discussed, shows the network, but what percentage of Americans know any of this? Less than 1%, I'll bet, and that includes the crooks themselves.

[Octafish]

41. This one? Lots o' DUers there. And they're what made it rock with their words...

Know your BFEE: Bush and His Crooks with Badges Sent an Innocent Man to Jail

Thank you for the kind words, freshwest. I very much appreciate that you know this is a major example of what We the People are up against -- traitors running "Just Us."

[freshwest]

42. Yes, that's the one. And yes, other DUers did their part, too. Dangerous times.

[MotherPetrie]

29. That's not the point. Obama left those Bush appointees in place, still spreading their poison. Why?

[OnyxCollie]

33. During the US Attorney scandal,

we were told that US Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, as if one person could determine how the Justice Department operated.

However, it is now clear that when the highly-partisan Justice Department remained in place after Obama was elected, that it is not the function of a person to determine how justice is conducted, but the structure of corporate economic interests and government's ability to serve them that determines how justice is conducted.

[dmr]

8. Absolutely. I believe what happen to him was & still is criminal. n/t

[Octafish]

39. Rove. Canary. Riley. Fuller.

Their story:

Vote machine:

How Republicans hacked the Justice Department

By Scott Horton
Harper's March 2008

EXCERPT...

EXCERPT...

Putting one’s political enemies in prison is serious business, however, and not everyone in the Alabama Republican Party thought it was a good idea. After Siegelman’s conviction, Dana Jill Simpson, a Republican attorney and election volunteer, gave an affidavit to Scrushy’s attorneys describing the process whereby Siegelman had been imprisoned. Her motivation, according to her later testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, was that she “thought it was the right thing to do.” Simpson described a plan by a group of Alabama Republicans, joined by Karl Rove and using the Department of Justice, to eliminate Siegelman as a threat. In one conversation, Simpson quotes William

Canary—the state’s most important Republican campaign adviser and a longtime friend of Karl Rove’s—as stating that “Karl” had given his assurance that the Justice Department would target Siegelman so that he would no longer be a problem. “My girls” would do the job, Canary said, referring to his friend, Alice Martin, who was the U.S. attorney in Birmingham, and his own wife, Leura, who was the U.S. attorney in Montgomery. In fact both Martin and the office of Canary brought cases against Siegelman, although Canary was later forced to formally recuse herself.

Simpson also testified that Rob Riley, the son of the governor, told her well before the Siegelman case began that a specific judge had been pre-selected to handle it: Bush appointee Mark Everett Fuller. After the trial, it was revealed that Fuller had been a member of the Executive Committee of the Alabama G.O.P. while Siegelman was governor. Before his appointment to the federal bench, Fuller had charged that a critical audit of his records from his own service as district attorney had been “politically motivated”—by the Siegelman administration. Fuller was asked to recuse himself. He refused. At a June 2007 hearing, Fuller sentenced Siegelman to over seven years’ imprisonment. He also denied Siegelman his freedom pending appeal, ordering him to be manacled in the courtroom and taken straight to prison.

SNIP...

The Siegelman case does not stand alone. In neighboring Georgia and Mississippi, suspiciously similar charges were brought by federal prosecutors. In Georgia the State Senate majority leader, Democrat Charles Walker, was charged on several corruption counts. An internal Justice Department probe actually concluded that the investigation had been politically motivated. In Mississippi a case was brought against the Democratic Party’s largest funder and three Demo-cratic judges. Whether or not the prosecution was designed to defund the Mississippi Democrats, it had that effect. In a number of other cases, the Justice Department is proceeding with amazing vigor and heavy-handedness against trial lawyers around the country who committed the crime of attempting to raise money for the campaigns of Democrats John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

CONTINUED...

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/0081943

Integrity is absolutely missing from these crooks, war profiteers, warmongers and traitors.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. No offense...but who in the world would say no...he got a fair deal?

[Octafish]

12. None taken. I was surprised by the broad spectrum of reactions...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=184610

The country needs to wake up, too.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. well, that is just sickening. I knew Don and I would bet my life on the fact

he would NEVER do anything self-serving or illegal.

[sabrina 1]

28. Only a few actually, some to be expected, while others seemed not to know much about the case.

But most people know what this was. It was a total travesty of justice and our system, those who could stop it, as they did in the Stevens case, are silent.

[OnyxCollie]

32. I only see concern for Don Siegelman.

Behold the power of "Ignore."

It's not like any of those posters ever wrote anything worth reading anyway.

[Octafish]

35. I manipulated Fuller's image with Photoshop...

...for Art's sake. No retouching, just adding one special effects filter. Here's what it revealed:



PS: My heart has grown heavy from all the, eh, concern. Oh well. At least there's no evidence for a conspiracy. Thankfully.

[OnyxCollie]

37. Ah, yes.

The Asshatch filter.

I remember when that first came out in Kai's Power Tools. Those were the days...

[horseshoecrab]

11. Very simply ...

Siegelman was railroaded in this mockery of justice.

[Octafish]

40. Just Us... for Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff...big time beneficiaries of Indian Casinos

"I don't know how they can sleep at night taking money from the Indian casinos to deny Alabama schoolchildren," -- Gov. Don Siegelman

DUer L. Coyote brought this important part of the story to DU2:

Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances

Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor
By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON
Friday, Jun. 01, 2007
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html?xid=rss-nation

In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A long time Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys. ..............

========================
From June 3, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Gambling, GOP Politics Intertwine
Casino Payments Seen as Influential
by Michael Kranish - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0603-08.htm


WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush gave the nation's gambling industry plenty of reason to fear his presidency. .... He wooed religious conservatives by boasting in a presidential debate about his ''strong antigambling record."

But as president, Bush has not spoken out against gambling. .... as Republican lobbyists and activist groups collected tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes seeking to preserve their casinos. Now those payments are the focus of Senate and Justice Department investigations.

... White House ... annual sessions over a four-year period that were arranged by antitax crusader Grover Norquist ... After Bush dropped his antigambling rhetoric, lobbyists touted their access, and fund-raising from Indian tribes grew exponentially.

...Norquist('s) ... organization received $1.5 million from tribes and fought a tax on Indian casinos; lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a top Bush fund-raiser who earned millions of dollars in fees as a consultant to gaming tribes; and Ralph Reed ... allegedly used some money from Indian gaming tribes to fund his efforts to close down rival casinos and lotteries

.........Bush worked closely with religious conservatives, especially Reed....

..... Tiguas poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign of the Democrat running against Bush in 1998 .... Bush redoubled his earlier efforts to shut down the Tigua casino. ... special appropriation ... for the state's attorney general, John Cornyn, now a US senator, to take legal action against the tribe.....

Abramoff, who helped arrange for the rival tribes to give the money to Reed's group, turned around and offered his services to the Tiguas -- for $4.2 million in fees split between himself and a partner

..... Abramoff and his partner in Indian gaming consulting would receive more than $60 million in fees from six different tribes seeking to advance their gambling interests ... Abramoff also told the tribes to give money ... the tribes gave $3 million, two-thirds of it to Republicans

.... Abramoff and Norquist .. worked (for) ... candidate ... following year, Abramoff and Norquist came to Washington together to lead the Republican Party's national effort to recruit college students. Reed soon joined ...


In 1999, Don Siegelman, the Democratic governor of Alabama, proposed a lottery that would have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into public schools and even provided free college education for most Alabama high school graduates.

Reed, rallying religious conservatives, set out to try to defeat it ... quickly raised $1.15 million .... money came from Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist ... got the funds from an Indian gaming tribe ...At the time Reed raised the money, he was working for Abramoff ... and Abramoff represented the Mississippi tribe.

Siegelman ..."'I don't know how they can sleep at night taking money from the Indian casinos to deny Alabama schoolchildren...."

.... Abramoff, meanwhile, appears to be the central focus ....Bush has not spoken on the matter.

"Corruption in public office is treason." -- Adlai Stevenson, Jr.

[pacalo]

14. K&R.

[Octafish]

43. Siegelman frustrated Casino Jack Abramoff...

From Gov. Siegelman:

Dear Friend,

First: Jack Abromoff, is validating what I have been saying for more than a decade!!!! Straight from the horse’s mouth: Abramoff confessed that he laundered $20 million dollars of gambling money through fake organizations to defeat me and my Education Lottery proposal and to elect my opponent Bob Riley.

Then they came after me using the wife of my opponent’s campaign manager( Karl Rove’s best friend), the US Attorney to prosecute me. Everybody knows that ruining a political reputation is the cheapest and best campaign tool e8ver. Yes, taxpayers paid for that campaign tactic, too.

I have been saying this all along and now it is in print, straight from Jack Abramoff himself!

In his new book Jack Abramoff states that the number one problem he had to deal with in Alabama was me… Don Siegelman. http://blog.al.com/sweethome/2011/11/jack_abramoffs_book_says_choct.html#incart_hbx

CONTINUED...

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/11/abramoffs-confession-moves-us-closer-to-the-truth-about-don-siegelman%E2%80%94who-badly-needs-your-help/

"What Abramoff says takes us along way down the road toward the truth." -- Gov. Don Siegelman

[Liberal_Dog]

15. Absofuckinglutely. nt

[Justice wanted]

19. ABSOLUTELY!!! I can't believe the Obama administration hasn't stop this injustice.

[RoccoR5955]

21. So did....

Spitzer, Weiner, Gore, and others who were setup by the Bush Crime Family.

[lonestarnot]

22. Of course he did, and I hope President Obama pardons him his second day in office of his second term

[H2O Man]

25. Yep.

Sure do.

[MADem]

27. I think he got bagged for doing what everyone else has done since time immemorial.

A political enemy used the law in a nefarious way to bag him. Is it legal? Sure.

Is it fair? Not so much.

Could he get some kind of judicial relief based on this paragraph? Maybe. One never knows, do one?

Montgomery Independent Publisher and Editor Bob Martin published a front-page news story quoting divorce papers filed April 10 by Lisa Boyd Fuller, the judge’s estranged wife of three decades. Her papers strongly suggested adultery. Her interrogatories asked about drug use and drunk driving.

When people are impaired, well, who know what kind of decisions they will make?

[Festivito]

30. 131 Yes. No: Nos, Maybes, Don't knows or whatevers - none.

Testament to the Show usernames function in DU3. That list is almost devoid of suspected trolls. A quick look did not show anyone that I have suspected.

[OnyxCollie]

31. K&R.

The economic rationality of Big Oil causes harm to anyone who gets in its way, from Don Siegelman to 150,000/650,000/1,000,000 (take your pick) Iraqis.

What's sad is those who hold on to this non-rational belief that President Obama, family man/generally nice guy, is going to buck the system and do the morally right thing.

Yeah, that'll happen right after FISA is returned to pre-Bushian status, the NDAA is repealed, and the Bush administration is prosecuted for war crimes.

Ain't gonna happen. Quit dreaming.