Officials in the Bush administration initiated an unlawful harassment campaign against Alabama whistleblower Dana Jill Simpson, and a news report indicates that Karl Rove started the campaign in an effort to defend himself against charges of using the Justice Department for political purposes.
Simpson, a north Alabama attorney and former Republican opposition-research volunteer, testified under oath that GOP operative William Canary had worked with Rove to instigate the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen now reports that Rove and Alabama U.S. Attorney Alice Martin are behind a harassment campaign against Simpson that has been going on for months.
Multiple sources have reported that the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is investigating Martin and fellow Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary for their roles in the Siegelman case and other apparent political prosecutions.
But according to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), OPR actually is conducting an unlawful investigation of Simpson, looking into the adoption of her 4-year-old daughter in 2004, her taxes, her previous rental properties, and legal cases she argued as a defense attorney. Several of Simpson's legal clients, business associates, and even her ex-husband have been questioned by federal officers, including FBI agents.
The goal, apparently, is to find information that could assist Rove, Martin, and Canary in defense of charges that they used the Justice Department for political purposes.
How could this happen? Madsen reports that the person charged with "investigating" Martin was one of her subordinates, Alabama Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Sullivan. In fact, Sullivan is considered one of Martin's top criminal investigators.
But instead of scrutinizing Martin, Sullivan has been investigating Simpson. And he has received assistance from William Causey, assistant counsel for OPR, Madsen reports.
OPR is legally authorized to investigate only possible corruption by government employees. Use of the office to investigate Simpson, a private citizen, would be an unlawful abuse of government resources, Madsen reports.
Madsen also has harsh words for U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), who is scheduled to announce his run for governor today in Birmingham:
WMR has also learned that one of Simpson's early supporters, Representative Artur Davis (D-AL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee who spent Super Bowl Sunday with Barack Obama at a White House party, has decided to abandon his defense of Simpson because he has gubernatorial ambitions. Davis, who would be Alabama's first African-American governor, has decided that it is more important to gain the support of the Business Council of Alabama, headed up by Leura Canary's husband Bill Canary, a major Republican official in the state and ally of current Republican Governor Bob Riley, than in getting to the bottom of the Siegelman's prosecution.
10 comments:
President Obama will have to investigate the Bush Administration. The People won't let it go away, nor will other nations.
There is too much there to think the investigation will yield nothing to prosecute.
AG Holder must remove those in OPR who have manipulated the Martin/Canary Investigation into a Simpson one and turn it into the investigation it's supposed to be.
There are so many threads of corruption, but investigating rove's connection to Gov. Siegelman's prosecution will blow a big hole in the veil of evil those people threw over this country.
I can hear moderate Democrats now. Shhh! You'll alienate red county voters. We need to build a bridge to the future. So, let's forget about water under the bridge. What they don't understand is that if the Repubs can do it to Siegelman and get away with it, they can send any of us to prison in the future. Don't forget The Don!
It seems like every time we turn over a rock we detect the stink of Karl Rove. Let's keep investigating.
Oh I don't know. . . I think Simpson's own admission that she tried to bribe a sitting Congressman in return for helping her receive a federal contract warrants investigation.
Anon:
Care to tell us what admission you're talking about? How about a link?
I've never heard of such an admission?
From Glenn Wilson. . .
"Along the way, in their effort to raise money, Ms. Simpson tried to get the Rileys to help her collect on a contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for one of her storm gypsy clients. It was a $4 million deal for cleaning up after an ice storm in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a contract that was tied up in the federal bureaucracy in Washington. What’s a Congressman for but to help a citizen collect legally earned money being held up in Washington? She promised to split the money with the Rileys if they would help free it up in the bureaucracy."
http://blog.locustfork.net/2007/06/page/5/
How is it a bribe to try to collect money that is owed to you?
The bribe is promising the Congressman a cut of the money he helps you get. perhaps the more accurate term is a kickback.
You don't seem to have a very good grasp of bribery. In order to have bribery, you must have a corrupt act. Helping someone get money that is legally owed to them is not a corrupt act. I would suggest you learn a little about bribery before charging that someone has committed that crime.
Riley the chicken farmer, huh? That’s about as accurate as “Riley the Prophetic Orator”.
While we po’ little Alabamians are lead to believe “The Guvnuh” is out there a fightin’ for us workin’ folk and our “conservative” values, “Billion Dollar Bob” is actually out there fleecing and coercing his way into legal purgatory. W.’s gone, so Alice and Laura will be too…very soon.
Come to think of it…when I listen to Bob speak, I really wonder if he has the sense to manage their fleecing operation. Enter one Rob Riley, seed of Bob’s loin.
So when I was listening to Bob’s musings on ethics and his abundant use of the buzzword of the day: transparency, I quickly remembered that Bob vetoed a bill last year aimed at shedding a little light on his administration and in particular, the relationships and dealings that his children were a part of within it. Here’s a taste of that legislation:
A conflict of interest involves any action, inaction, or decision by a public official or public employee in the discharge of his or her official duties which would materially affect his or her financial interest or those of his or her family members or any business with which the person is associated in a manner different from the manner it affects the other members of the class to which he or she belongs.
I don’t get it. What better way to get the “ethical” ball rolling would there be than for Bob to set the example? Well, there’s the rub. See this bill would’ve put ole Rob out of business. As it stands, anyone “lobbying” the executive branch isn’t required to register with the Alabama Ethics Commission. Who’d of thunk it? Wow, for a corrupt ole’ Legislature, at least individuals lobbying it have to register.
So the Riley Empire continues to swashbuckle Alabama through the exploitation of weak executive branch ethics laws by either funneling would-be business interests through GOP friendly lobbying firms (who then cut Rob a chunk) or by using Rob’s heritage to secure state legal business for his recently sold law firm. See Exxon vs. State of Alabama.
It’s a pretty neat scheme, except for the fact that enriching oneself or one’s children while in office is a direct “conflict on the part of a public official or public employee between his or her private interests and the official responsibilities inherent in an office of public trust.”
Which is probably why he vetoed an attempt to curtail his egregious self-enrichment.
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