Don Siegelman

Whistleblower: Aide Reported On Siegelman Case To "Recused" U.S. Attorney "Every Day"

Zachary Roth | November 21, 2008, 6:13PM

The New York Times has more details about the possible continued involvement of the U.S. Attorney in the prosecution of former Alabama Democratic governor Don Siegleman, even after she had formally recused herslef form ghe case because her husband was a GOP operative who had run the gubernatorial campaign of Siegelman's opponent.

The paper reports allegations made in a sworn affidavit by a whistleblower in the office, Tamarah Grimes, about the involvement of U.S. Attorney Leura Canary. Time had reported similar claims earlier this month -- in response to which Siegelman expressed outrage in an interview with TPMmuckraker.

Says the Times:

[I]n her complaint, the Justice Department employee, Tamarah T. Grimes, cited several instances suggesting Ms. Canary maintained a close watch on the case. Ms. Grimes said a legal aide in the office reported on Mr. Siegelman's trial to Ms. Canary or her top deputy "every day, sometimes several times per day by telephone." Once, she observed Ms. Canary "frantically pacing in the executive suite" after a courtroom blowup, "pleading with someone" to get on the phone to "tell Louis he has to control his temper."

Ms. Grimes also disclosed an e-mail message written by Ms. Canary commenting on legal strategy in the case and suggesting to aides that Mr. Siegelman not be allowed to "comment on court activities in the media." Ms. Grimes, who is also in an dispute with the department related to her allegations that the Siegelman prosecution team had harrassed her, cited the affidavit of a former legal aide in the Montgomery office, Elizabeth Jane Crooks, who wrote that "the morning that the trial started, the U.S. attorney herself carried food and beverage over to the courthouse to support the 'Trial Team.' "

The Times also reports that lawyers for Siegelman, whose appeal begins next month in Atlanta court, have made new filings based on Grimes' claims.

John Conyers

Denying Congress Siegelman Docs, DOJ Gets Rumsfeldian

Zachary Roth | November 17, 2008, 5:08PM

The Justice Department is denying a subpoena from House Judiciary chair John Conyers for documents relating to the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman.

Conyers is investigating whether the 2006 prosecution on corruption charges of Siegelman, a Democrat, was politically motivated.

In a letter sent Friday to Conyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Keith Nelson writes that DOJ won't produce the documents in question, consistent with a department policy of not providing internal prosecution materials to Congress. Nelson makes the contorted argument that even though such documents in fact have been given to Congress in the past, that would not affect the decision on the Siegelman documents, because of supposed uncertainty about the facts of the other cases:

We do not believe that a possible departure from those policies in any given matter, the details of which may not be known or knowable at this point, requires us to set them aside in any other matter.

In response, a Judiciary Committee aide told TPMmuckraker:

Not sure when DOJ starting getting Donald Rumsfeld to write their letters, but I don't think the Committee's subpoena can be put off by some Justice Department Uncertainty Principle that refuses to answer Congressional oversight based on the unknowable nature of facts. In the end, this wrangling over oversight precedent misses the important point here - the Department's reputation is at a low ebb, and they should be working to clear away the clouds over the Siegelman case, not hunkering down and hoping they'll blow over.

At a 2002 press conference, Rumseld famously told reporters, in regard to whether Saddam Hussein had tried to pass weapons of mass destruction to terrorists:

[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

Last week, we reported on new documents that have surfaced in the Siegelman case, showing, among other things, that the U.S. Attorney on the case -- who had recused herself because her husband is a top GOP operative who had run the gubernatorial campaign of Siegelman's GOP opponent -- continued to advise prosecutors.

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, Siegelman lamented what he called "outrageous criminal conduct" on the part of the US Attorney's office and main DOJ.

Don Siegelman

Siegelman: New Revelations "More Frightening Than Anything That Came Before."

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 11:34AM

Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman says that new revelations about his prosecution amount to "outrageous criminal conduct in the US Attorney's office and the Department of Justice," and are "more frightening than anything that has come before." And he believes that his case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of politicized prosecutions by DOJ.

Siegelman was reacting in an interview with TPMmuckraker to the news, first reported this morning by Time, that the US Attorney on his case, who had recused herself because her husband was a top GOP operative who had worked closely with Karl Rove -- and even run the 2002 campaign of Siegelman's gubernatorial opponent -- continued to advise prosecutors on the case.

At times while speaking to TPMmuckraker, Siegelman appeared to have trouble maintaining his composure. He called the news -- which came from a whistleblower in the US Attorney's office who passed on emails and other information to the House Judiciary Commitee -- "another shocking revelation in the misconduct of the US attorneys offices and the DOJ."

The news appears to contradict previous statements from DOJ on the matter. When Congress investigated the affair earlier this year, DOJ had said that the US Attorney, Leura Canary, had recused herself "before any significant decisions ... were made."

Siegelman continued: "If what [the whistleblower] says is true, it's one issue. But the fact that it was never disclosed to the defense or the judge, and then was covered up by DOJ, is a crime, even if what she said wasn't true."

He added: "At every stage of this investigation, either by lawyers or the House Judiciary Committee, DOJ has refused to turn over documents" or otherwise cooperate.

The authenticity of the key emails provided by the whistleblower has not been questioned, according to Time.

Siegelman also said he was shocked by other revelations from the whistleblower, including that one of the jurors had expressed romantic interest in an FBI agent working with prosecutors. He called it "astounding" that this hadn't been revealed to the judge and the defense.

And Siegelman, a Democrat, left no doubt that he believes that the apparent politicization of his prosecution was just one example of many such cases. "If this were isolated to just the middle district of Alabama, it would be shocking enough. But I guarantee this kind of misbehavior has been going on all over the country."

He added: "Whoever is the new Attorney General has to be strong enough to weed out the Karl Rove clones who have been embedded in US Attorneys' offices throughout the United States. If not, it is going to eat at our system for years to come."

At one point, Siegelman turned philosophical: "If I've been put through this for a reason, it's to expose the fact that this is not an isolated incident. I am prayerful that Congress will dig in and demand the truth. These folks have got to be weeded out."

Don Siegelman

Recused US Attorney Kept Advising Siegelman Prosecutors, New Docs Show

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 10:46AM

New documents relating to the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman suggest misconduct by the US attorney in the case, and appear to contradict previous statements from the Department of Justice about the matter.

The new revelations, reported by Time, are contained in a letter sent last week by House Judiciary chair John Conyers to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, based on information provided to the committee by a legal aide in the US Attorney's office in Alabama. That information includes emails written by the US Attorney, Leura Canary, showing that she continued to advise prosecutors on the case even after having recused herself because her husband was a top Alabama GOP operative who had worked closely with Karl Rove.

Here's the key excerpt from Time:

In one of Canary's e-mails, dated September 19, 2005, she forwards senior prosecutors on the Siegelman case a three-page political commentary by Siegelman. Canary highlighted a single passage which, she told her subordinates, "Ya'll need to read, because he refers to a 'survey' which allegedly shows that 67% of Alabamans believe the investigation of him to be politically motivated." Canary then suggests: "Perhaps [this is] grounds not to let [Siegelman] discuss court activities in the media!"

Prosecutors in the case seem to have followed Canary's advice. A few months later they petitioned the court to prevent Siegelman from arguing that politics had any bearing on the case against him. After trial, they persuaded the judge to use Siegelman's public statements about political bias -- like the one Canary had flagged in her e-mail -- as grounds for increasing his prison sentence. The judge's action is now one target of next month's appeal.

When Conyers' committee investigated the Siegelman matter earlier this year, DOJ had said that Canary's 2002 recusal had come "before any significant decisions ... were made."

DOJ has already conducted its own inquiry into some of the claims contained in the letter sent by Conyers, and produced a report dismissing them as inconsequential.

Siegelman's supporters and congressional Democrats have long raised suspicions that DOJ's prosecution of Siegelman, a red-state Democrat, was an example of the inappropriate politicization of the department.

Siegelman's appeal of his conviction is set to begin next month in a federal court in Atlanta.