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| Johnny Ford |
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange should be the target of a federal bribery investigation, according to a letter sent this week to the U.S. Department of Justice by the mayor of a central Alabama city. Individuals connected to the administration of former Governor Bob Riley also should be investigated, the letter states.
Johnny Ford, who was sworn in Monday to his eighth term as mayor of Tuskegee, said in a letter dated November 5, 2012, that Strange's actions on gambling-related issues represent possible federal crimes. In his letter to George Beck, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, Ford points to a $100,000 campaign contribution that Strange received from the Poarch Creek Indians, who operate casinos in Montgomery and Wetumpka. Ford notes that Strange has initiated raids against non-Indian gaming facilities that would be competitors for the Creeks and threatened similar action if VictoryLand reopens in Macon County, just a few miles from Tuskegee.
Public records show that Strange accepted a major campaign contribution and then took official action that would benefit the donor. That is almost identical to the allegations that were at the heart of a federal prosecution against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. Siegelman currently is housed in a Louisiana federal prison, and Scrushy recently was released from custody after serving his term.
The irony of Strange's actions, in light of the Siegelman case, is not lost on Johnny Ford. In his letter to George Beck (see full letter at the end of this post), Ford writes:
Attorney General Strange continues to threaten the economic viability of Macon County by his threats and predatory actions with regard to the reopening of our county's largest employer, VictoryLand. Yet, at the same time, he has received at least $100,000 in campaign donations from the owners of other Indian establishments in this state with whom VictoryLand would be a vibrant competitor. Is this bribery? If not, is is so close akin to it that I cannot see the difference. Is it not the same type of quid pro quo proposition for which former Governor Siegelman was convicted and now sits in federal prison.
Ford filed an ethics complaint against Strange in late October, and several news outlets have described this week's letter as another ethics complaint. But Ford now is clearly going beyond ethics matters; his letter raises the specter of a criminal investigation:
Is it not clear that if Attorney General Strange takes money from a competitor of another gaming operation like the Poarch Creek Casinos in Montgomery and Wetumpka (only a few miles on the interstate from Macon County's VictoryLand) and subsequently threatens to shut the other competitor (VictoryLand) down if it reopens, that it is illegal? Is it not illegal to hide this payoff by laundering the funds through various Republican PACs.
Ford's call for an investigation does not stop with Strange. It also includes a number of individuals who, like Strange, are politically aligned with former Governor Bob Riley. It was Riley, of course, who launched a series of raids against non-Indian gaming facilities in 2010. To Beck, Ford wrote:
I hereby request that you investigate and empanel a grand jury to investigate this matter. Also, as you can see from the attached media reports, the main persons participating in this illegal and money laundering scheme are the following: Former Gov. Bob Riley, his son Rob Riley, Attorney General Luther Strange, Birmingham Attorney Eric Johnston, and Republican State Senator Brian Taylor.
No one would expect Attorney General Strange to investigate himself and any of his Republican cohorts. The federal courts have recently ruled that you have jurisdiction over this matter and that the quid pro quo payoffs are illegal in the Siegelman case. As soon as you contact me, I will provide you with documents that will clearly show the above-mentioned parties' guilt.
Will George Beck take this seriously? We see reasons to doubt it. One of Beck's prime supporters for the U.S. attorney appointment was Birmingham lawyer G. Douglas Jones, now with the firm Haskell Slaughter and once a U.S. attorney under the Clinton administration.
Doug Jones, while ostensibly a Democrat, is tightly aligned with Rob Riley via their work on a federal lawsuit against individuals and entities connected to HealthSouth. Jones and Riley received a sizable chunk of some $50 million in legal fees awarded in the HealthSouth case, so it's unlikely that one of George Beck's supporters would welcome an inquiry into the Riley family.
If the precedent in the Siegelman case is applied, however, Johnny Ford has a powerful legal point. The trial court in the Siegelman case found, and the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, that an explicit "something for something" agreement (quid pro quo) is not necessary to prove a bribery case. The new law, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review, states that a jury is free to "infer" that an unlawful agreement existed from circumstantial evidence. And such evidence can include signs that the parties took steps to hide the nature of the transaction.
Ford hints that he has documentation to prove that the campaign contribution to Luther Strange was hidden via several Republican PACs. If the U.S. Department of Justice takes this seriously--and based on the Siegelman case, it should--Big Luther Strange might be in big trouble. The same applies to his allies connected to the Riley administration.
Johnny Ford Letter Re: Luther Strange
Johnny Ford rocks!
ReplyDeleteFat chance. You have a better chance winning the Florida Lottery than to ever see Big Luther, Gomer Riley, or Carlie Baby (Rove) EVER in trouble. Remember the are the "Good Ole White Boys" and oh yes Republicans. They should be in prison.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see Johnny Ford's documents. If George Beck plays dumb, perhaps the mayor can send them your way, LS.
ReplyDeleteI have known Johnny Ford over 30 years and do not reside in Macoon County. He has served his state well and now has been reelected as Mayor of Tuskegee, excepting no salary. He has seen the county suffer from the criminal and illegal actions of a corrupt governor and his group of thugs. I only hope there will be a federal investigation and those involved, including the AL AG, will be brought to justice.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 9:38--
ReplyDeleteThis is Alabama. Don't mention the word "lottery."
Unfortunately, I have to agree with 9:38. But just the idea makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteDo the feds have prison cells large enough to hold Big Luther?
ReplyDeleteTLR:
ReplyDeleteI stand ready and waiting if Mayor Ford decides to share his documents.
Mr. Schnauzer:
ReplyDeleteHow can a serious investigation proceed when those at the highest levels of the federal judiciary are themselves criminals engaged in covering up their own criminality?
I can appreciate Mr. Ford's endeavor even though he might be a little too much of an idealist.
July 5,2005
Dear Mr. Spruill:
Thank you for your letter dated July4,2005 expressing your concerns about the Supreme Court under theleadership of Chief Justice William H.Rehnquist. I appreciate you apprising me of your views on this issue.
Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on other issues which may be of concern to you.
Robert C. "Bobby''Scott
Member of Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/politics/15rehnquist.html?_r=4&ex=1122091200&en=e0ec6fdc57fa3214&ei=5070&emc=eta1&
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21bush.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21bush.html?pagewanted=all
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Didn't someone say that way back when? Well, what's good for Siegelman and Scrushy should be good for Strange and the Poarch Creeks.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see the Siegelman case come back and bite the Rethugs on the ass.
ReplyDeleteDoug Jones would protect the Rileys and their friends from a federal investigation? Democrats, especially those of color, should remember that when Dougie wants to be a party kingmaker.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the al.com newspapers? Where are Eddie Curran and Brett Blackledge? Where are all of the editors who decided the Siegelman issue merited major coverage? What about this? Are they knocking down Johnny Ford's door, asking for interviews? Are they checking records to see how the donation was routed through various GOP PACs?
ReplyDeleteWhich PAC's?
DeleteEddie Curran doesn't have a job now does he? Is he reporting for anyone? Does Eddie still have problems with the bottle?
ReplyDeleteIf Eddie had a job, he would need a bag man to hand him all the inside information. Eddie isn't a real reporter. He's a political hack.
Eddie's living off the massive "royalties" from his Siegelman book. I hear they totaled a buck 35.
ReplyDeleteWhy is there not one high ranking legal or judiciary official in a place of power that can challenge what Luther Strange and Bob Riley have done and also what happened to Don Siegleman? Is it out of fear or what? You would think that at least one high ranking upstanding government official or attorney would challange Luther. But no.... Why????
ReplyDeleteIt would be a perfect world in America should the reality be truth, justice and then of course due process in our GOOD "rule of law," BUT we do not live in this so called real world, "U.S. of A."
ReplyDeletePlease this wonderful "black" man gets it, We The People "immigrants" that have labored our whole lives to be at the very least a "middle class," blacks have been shafted far too often by the same ole GOP, and not necessarily the REAL "republicans!" Meaning, Obama is a true icon, slave nation and he gets "elected," twice.
Time the "blacks" really step up NOW, all in positions of power and take down "Charlie" it is? for the Turd Blossom that lost all "Boy Genius" protection because he lost Romney's election, ha ha ha ha ha.
The new age slave trader traitors, that is, are not going to be in control to do more of the same damage AND "Obummer" is no longer fooled by why he got used to be a bummer. Michelle is really the key in how these next 4 play, she is an "organic" devotee, the tap root of how serious the problems are.
She said the nation was basically a toxic 'reality,' and Rove to her I'll bet in Las Vegas' best gambling casino is no secret, in the closet, SUPREME racist.
Johnny Ford and Michelle are with any good luck at all, on the same page for getting America back to Carnegie Hall.
ONLY because the election could not be stolen via Karl Turd, are we celebrating the Obamas next 4.
LS, you are the JOURNALIST extra-ordinaire thus, Michelle Obama has been invited via your incredible investigative mastery?
Just hopin we can watch you do interviews with the "First Lady," for your book, simply.
Smiles you are truly going to shine in the next 4, ET AL.
The great Danger
ReplyDeletePresident Obama’s national healer complex and endless surrender to the right and might result in implementing an even more severe austerity regime. Only Nixon could go to China and only a Democrat could unravel Medicare & Social Security. Obama has already signaled that he is willing to make cuts to both Medicare and Social Security, rather than pursue options such as raising the income cap to fund Social Security. To prevent this, the very people who worked so hard to canvass and elect Obama will now have to pirouette and organize against him. Will they? I doubt it.
Foreign Policy
Romney intended to reprise the Reagan years with economic “recovery” through ginning up the military industrial complex. He surrounded himself with the worst chicken hawks, such as John Bolton, who were gunning for “preventive wars.” This would have been disastrous for the US and the world. President Obama needs to be challenged on any scores, from too frequent use of drone strikes, to continued operation of Gitmo. Nonetheless, we have likely averted war by keeping the GOP out of the White House.
globalresearch.ca "Tea Party" and "Empire Strikes Back"
excellent article LS, and wanted to add Elizabeth Warren for your next four year agenda of "interviewing!'
I'm on a computersystem and mac computer not familiar, significant trial against in essence the GOP!
How bad is our America? When the criminals own compute'wealth' and all the casinos nationally are in truth owned by the GOP? THE FED - we cannot compete, non computer wealth not haves. BUT, the journalists can interview the Michelle Obamas and Elizabeth Warrnens, ET AL for four years and 24/7 WTP can grow again as genuine patriots of "reality."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-goldman-arbitrationbre8a6247-20121107,0,5782005.story
ReplyDeletefyi very important for "women" and with very important links for your work LS
1. Eddie Curran worked on the sports desk until he got into a fist fight with a co-worker. So somebody had a bright idea - let's make him and investigative reporter. So he it picked a mfight with Don Siegelman on the front page of the Mobile Press Register.
ReplyDeleteBig Luther is violating the Equal protection clause by not treating the Creek Indian Casinos the same as the one in White Hall, Macon Co., Greene Co. and Dothan. The Creek Casinos are on on "indian reservations" and they have Nevada gaming corporation running them.
Could this be a good early test to see if the Obama DOJ will grow a spine in the second term?
ReplyDeleteCompetition is a sin.
ReplyDeleteJohn D. Rockefeller
The monopolist of the corporate media - - like a vulture "waiting to devour it's prey" swooped down at just the right time & devoured Frank Batten Jr.'s Weather Channel.
They understood Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson was the former editorial page editor of the Va. Pilot.
That's how crimes are silenced. And that's how I discovered the world works.(only the little guy pays)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07weather.html?fta=y
Here is how Bob Martin, of the Montgomery Independent, described the money trail that led to Luther Strange:
ReplyDeleteThe money trail for that $100,000 contribution went like this: from the Poarch Leadership Committee to the Republican Leadership Committee on July 15, 2010; from the Republican Leadership Committee to the Alabama Republican Party on July 22, 2010, then from the Alabama Republican Party to the Luther Strange Campaign on August 4, 2010.
"... They came from around the world and included a former US Army colonel, journalists and peace activists who witnessed the massacre onboard the Mavi Marmara.
ReplyDelete"... Israel squirms and wriggles like a worm on a fishhook over the Turkish trial into the deaths of nine unarmed humanitarian aid volunteers on board a ship bound for Gaza.
"... No Show Trial for Israel.. Turkish trial into deaths of nine unarmed humanitarian aid volunteers
By Yvonne Ridley, Global Research, November 08, 2012, Counterpunch
"... Six hospital evacuations in NY-NJ. Hospitals closed for a Drone weapons site, By Sara Flounders, Global Research, November 08, 2012, International Action Center, Region: USA ..
.. $ spent on warfare, not health care ....
.. Bloomberg has focused attention on converting the Coler-Goldwater Hospital complex on Roosevelt Island into a special high-tech weapons lab and science center run by the Israeli Institute of Technology, better known as Technion. That means closing a major long-term care hospital to open an Israeli weapons plant to make drones. It’s a profitable choice.
.. Technion was also given the land of the Goldwater Hospital site — 2.1 million square feet on Roosevelt Island. Last year the city budgeted $100 million in New York taxpayer funds to rebuild the infrastructure on the Technion site. (New York Times, Dec. 19, 2011)
.. In a crisis of this magnitude, it is important for revolutionary activists to participate in people’s relief efforts, to work with community groups providing immediate assistance to those in need, and to project a socialist perspective on what could be done. Demands should be made on the capitalist government at every level — since it has the resources available — to provide emergency aid, especially to the poorest and most isolated sectors of the population....
"... A passage from “economic hitman” John Perkins’ second semiautobiographical book provides an illustrative example how the CO2 theory of climate change becomes a deep-seated component of an ostensibly well-informed individual’s outlook and belief system.
.. “Within less than a hundred years,” she said, “all the maple trees—and the fall foliage—will be gone from Massachusetts. According to a recent scientific study, global warming will make our climate here similar to North Carolina’s. So” she sighed, “enjoy this year’s display. We may not have many more like it.” I stood there for a moment staring through the bathroom window. Outside, the old red maple next to the house bowed in the wind, its branches scrapping against the wall. The familiar sound now seemed foreboding, a death rattle. I felt absolutely devastated.[13]
.. Scratching the veneer of some of the major climate change movers and shakers one finds a very well-financed assemblage of entities with major philanthropic foundation ties. Indeed, the Rockefeller Foundations alone are major players behind the anthropogenic global warming “activism” and propaganda. For example, in 2009 the Rockefeller Family Foundation gave $3,500,000 to Grace Communications Fund, an organization that “builds partnerships and develops innovative media strategies that increase public awareness of the relationships among food, water, and energy systems.” Also in 2009 Rockefeller gave $775,000 to the Natural Resource Defense Council, whose foremost agenda is “curbing global warming” and “creating a clean energy future.” Another $650,000 was channeled to the World Wildlife Federation, $350,000 to the Center for Climate Strategies, and $200,000 to the Sierra Club.[14]
Chemtrails. The Realities of Geoengineering and Weather Modification, By Prof. James F. Tracy, Global Research, November 08, 2012
Johnny Ford will be ignored, or worse.
ReplyDeleterumor was "W" only accelerated what was to be, so in 2000, until 2050, life in America would have gone on in the slow boiling frog U.S. "Bill of Rights."
ReplyDeletewe have to be thankful? those of us living in these most interesting cycles of insanity - from criminal to the sociopath, psychopath, name all those levels of child predatory insane so called "hunan being"!?? violators of innocence as a chain, abuse and of course the worst imaginable: torture and death. yes the ultimate goal to steal innocence's spirits.
but i digress.
"W" is our devil's disciple to THANK for how to trust the Johnny ford 'justices' et al, for standing and speaking truth to the power that pays for them to remain in the position to speak to the power that controls the "money."
who controls the air, water, fire, earth, metal, and computer technology to make HAARP, and GLOBAL WARMING, UNFATHOMABLE DISEASES ... oh how the imaginations of vile evil can work the universe in our system of energies ...
booms and busts in the AUGHT years by the market's hand job ~the worst MOFO BLOBS money can "buy."
there has to be a power that can demand accreditation to the systems designed to honor the rule due process of law.
we are no longer experiencing the 19th century and yet we produce reality as though too true.
reboot our imaginations into the now, there can be power in fully embracing our reality that was to be in 2050, yes, imagination knows not the boundary of "time" thus and therefore, it is time.
the "Monkey Trial" was a long time ago. It actually brought Luther Burbank from his protected lifestyle, out, to stand against the ignorance in that time.
a trial at this time, it reminds me of the "Monkey Trial," our "Food and Drug Administration," my words are "Federal Drug Agency," because let us be real here - "what poison did an American NOT 'LOVE'" -- the FDA has been acting as if, there are no boundaries in violating the rule in due process, and of course then coloring whatever abomination can be rendered over law ~a "Monkey Trial" or call this a "Witch Hunt."
call what it isn't in artificial las vegas nevada: U.S. Constitutional Bill of Rights as the good law which hold America as a United States of due process in the rule of law. NO exceptions to this except the GMO reptile - monkey - sub-human brains are being "paid" "social credit" IE computer digits ... to destroy the higher intelligence.
must imagine an inner that reflects our outer to be in balance with the HEALTHY "ego" imaginations.
Sure seems LS has pissed somebody off!
ReplyDeleteIn the case before the justices, Shelby County, Alabama, objects to the law’s method for determining which states are subject to Section 5. The law uses a formula that relies on a state’s decades-old voting patterns and rules.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-09/voting-rights-act-challenge-gets-u-s-high-court-hearing.html
jeffrey spruill, as always the link you provided is stellar in the going forward from the backwards!
ReplyDeleteyes OBAMA is our "first black president" AND the powers that put him there as well as the "W" for their own personal 1% of 1% TO allow MOB BLOB to reap the future benefits of enslaving America into a system still chained to the 1500 to 1700, 1800s ...
moving right along jeffrey spruill, we the people WTP ~~
WTP CAN DO!!
our first black president has appeared to be not exactly in the pocket of the same MITT hydra headed evildoers, that is, the SUPREME COURT JOHN ROBERTS noticed the 1965, et al, "country look" is much different now ~~
WHO ARE THE AGENTS FOR THE TRANSNATIONALS THAT ARE NOW ATTEMPTING TO BE ALEXANDER THE GREAT, NAPOLEON, HITLER, STALIN?!
Supreme Court of the United States of America reports to exactly WHOM since WTP appear powerless in the powerful WORSE THAN STALIN!! StalinEsq MODERN chains of THEIR RETIREMENT PORTFOLIOS.
reading the books written, Neil Barofsky, Jeff Connaughton, PREDATORY BENDER, ET AL, BLOBS' AGENDAS' and/or name it the IT NWO ~~ BUT, IT ISN'T any semblance of U.S. Constitutional when WTP are slaves to corporate shadow gulags of never ending killing fields.
DRONES are busy spying INDISCRIMINATELY, and arresting VIA ABJECT TERRORISM, BUT, somehow the people majority ... unawares of the new game in America: coming soon to one and all AND ..
Benefits to the CHOSEN?
ABSOLUTE POWER over the dumb, dumber, dumbest that "think" THE 'GOVERNMENT' under the "first black president" is a MLK benevolent idea.
until the COURTS get CLEAN HANDS then the "change" "hope" and thus, PROMISES for REALITY as a life style system of "modern" is simply a video hollywood grade death spiral into the retirment portfolios WTP cha ching.
change the system of retirment in the USA and WTP change our world BACK into the ORDER of higher intelligence as in TRANSPARENT CONTRACTS, ah hem, WTP do not stand in the same transparency of the retirees of so called 'government?!'
WTP ARE GOVERNMENT, too, not just the BLOB MOB 1% of the 1%!
Maybe the "Justices" hide under the faux immunity color over our good law, however, the "programs" such as but, not limited to ...
FDA! cannot hide under the 'immunity' --- the B.A.R.s also cannot be 'immune' to CLASS ACTIONS and let us be real here, lots of B.A.R.s for lots of WTP to be very busy undoing the 1965 and earlier OUTDATED ways and means of "controlling" America!
tx jeffrey spruill!!