Reply #35: It started here, the national attention: NY Times, dateline BIRMINGHAM, May 31, 2007

[L. Coyote]

Ex-Governor Says Affidavit Shows Politics in Bribe Case
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS - Published: June 1, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01prosecute.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 31 — Alabama has a tradition of savage political warfare, but Don E. Siegelman’s fight to stay out of prison is reverberating all the way back to Washington. Federal prosecutors here are seeking 30 years in prison for Mr. Siegelman, who was the Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003 and was convicted last year of accepting $500,000 in bribes from the chairman of the HealthSouth Corporation.

Mr. Siegelman, who is scheduled for sentencing on June 26, says he was singled out by prosecutors with close personal ties to Alabama Republican leaders and to the Bush White House ... defenders have tied his plight to the uproar in Washington over the Bush administration’s decision to dismiss eight United States attorneys, but they have produced no firm evidence of political interference.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002.

Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist. ......