House Panel to Seek Hearing with Jailed Alabama Ex-GovThe House Judiciary Committee will seek to hold a hearing where ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL), currently in a federal prison after conviction on bribery charges, will testify before the committee. A spokesperson for the committee told me that the panel has notified the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons of their intent, and that the official request to the Department would be forthcoming. The spokesperson said that the committee was hoping to hold the hearing sometime this spring.
The committee has already held one hearing on Siegelman’s case, a hearing that featured one of Siegelman’s former defense lawyers, Doug Jones. Jones testified that prosecutors had told him in 2004 after the collapse of one prosecution against Siegelman, that Justice Department officials had ordered them to “take another look at everything.” An effort which ultimately resulted in the successful second prosecution — a prosecution full of holes as 60 Minutes showed in its report last month.