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| Alyona Minkovski at HuffPost Live |
"I don’t understand Eric Holder not cleaning this mess up, if he’s any kind of man at all," Scrushy told Alyona Minkovski on HuffPost Live. "All you have to do is read the e-mails between the prosecutors. If the president of the United States would look at those e-mails, he would pardon the governor and let him out immediately. I can’t believe he would let it go another day, with the corruption that is in this case."
It was Scrushy's second interview since being released last summer from an almost six-year term in federal prison. His first was with San Francisco-based radio host Peter B. Collins in April. I participated in the Collins interview, and helped arrange it, so it was encouraging to see that Scrushy is continuing to speak out about injustice in the Siegelman prosecution--this time before the Huffington Post audience.
Scrushy focused last night on a petition that he has pending before the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Scrushy's lawyers are seeking discovery on documents that they say will prove widespread misconduct in the case. Much of it, Scrushy says, focuses on Bush-era U.S. Attorney Leura Canary and members of her staff:
We have internal documents, e-mails between prosecutors, talking about having contact with jurors. We have Leura Canary e-mails, with her directing the case after she had recused herself. That is before the Eleventh Circuit right now. . . . We are asking for the rest of discovery to prove the additional corruption. . . . Why would Eric Holder not step in immediately and fire those people who were involved in this? Making contact with a jury . . . come on, help me, please! Tell me why they would allow any of these people to continue to work, and why has this case not been thrown out?
Craig Unger, author of the 2012 book Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove's Secret Kingdom of Power, and Huffington Post justice reporter Ryan Reilly participated in the discussion. Unger did not mince words about the origins of the Siegelman prosecution:
Absolutely, it was political. Look how Rove came to power . . . the judiciary always has been part of it. When you control the courts, you get huge donations from corporations. He took over Texas courts, and he did the same thing in Alabama.
Unger also pointed at that the allegations against Siegelman and Scrushy never fit the definition of a crime under any statute:
What Siegelman was accused of isn’t really a crime. There are thousands of instances where people give campaign contributions and end up in political appointments. Pres George W. Bush appointed more than 140 contributors to be ambassadors and so forth.
Scrushy noted that he hardly knew Siegelman until they were locked up together, post conviction, for two weeks at a federal prison in Atlanta:
As a businessman in Alabama, I would run into Don Siegelman. But I didn’t hang out with him; he wasn’t my friend. We were locked up in Atlanta . . . in chains; they threw us in a cell together . . . like it was a dungeon. We spent two weeks together there. We spent a lot of time in prayer. We were on our knees a lot. We worked out together, we talked about our children, our wives, our lives. You learn about people.
Corruption in our justice system needs to be addressed, Scrushy says, and it needs to start with his pending appeal before the Eleventh Circuit:
I’ve done my time, what do I have to gain, other than the world knowing [I was] innocent? But let’s get the governor out. I’m back with my family, back with my children . . . but I’m not the only person who has done time that was innocent. While I was in prison, I met a lot of people who are innocent, especially in the white-collar area. I met a lot of young men brought in on some of the most ridiculous . . . deals you’ve ever heard.
The way our prosecution system works is through a "snitch process." I was asked to snitch on the governor, and they were going to let me out. But I would have had to lie and I said, "No, I’m not going to get up there and say a man did something he didn’t do." It’s a sad situation for our country.
WOW. Powerful and makes me sick that no one has acted to correct this double travesty. Like Richard implied, we were not raised in the US to believe this could happen. And worse, that it hasn't been rectified. God help the USA if crap like this continues much longer.
ReplyDeleteDM
Phenix City
Thanks LS another find job. I just hope Mr. Scrushy gets his day in court and it blows the lid off the justice system to include loser Eric Holder. It's about time.
ReplyDeleteI hope your readers will watch this entire interview. I did, and it definitely was worth the time.
ReplyDeleteToward the end, it sounds like Scrushy and Craig Unger need to get together and compare notes. Putting their heads together might help move justice forward.
ReplyDeleteAlyona sure is cute. I would be happy to roll around in her dirty bath water.
ReplyDeleteOh . . . good interview, too.
Alyona is one of many babes who have worked at RT. Remember Karen Tararache? Yummm! I believe she now works at a TV station in upstate NY.
ReplyDeleteI applaud Scrushy's statements, but I think he has the wrong definition of "snitch." A snitch, I believe, is an informer--someone who goes behind a friend's back to tell on him. A snitch, as I understand it, tells the truth--although it's in an underhanded way. He essentially sells out someone. He's a tattletale.
ReplyDeleteThe feds pressured Scrushy to be something far worse than a snitch. They wanted him to lie under oath about Siegelman.
The word Scrushy is looking for probably is "perjurer." And that is far worse than a "snitch."
Three words....New World Order! Why is is that people must still ask why all these crazy unjust things occur? It's not like NWO is a secret. George H W Bush foamed at the mouth every time he had the chance to declare that NWO would be achieved. It was no coincidence that those declarations were made in very important speeches given on Sept 11! Do people just ignore this or have the wrong idea of what NWO is? Overthrowing a nation such as ours will not be a peaceful occurrence and it it will be unjust! I just don't understand why these things are happening when the answer is all too clear....New World Order aka coup d' etat! If people are going to tip toe around the obvious out of fear of being imprisoned or murdered or tagged as crazy this sort of thing (as with everything you report on LS) will only get worse! The whistleblowers today at the Benghazi hearings deserve a medal. As does Scrushy! Good luck to them all and thank you to them for their courage.
ReplyDeleteYes, the "New World Order," that is what this is, supposedly.
ReplyDeleteNow when we look at the past and realize how long this "take-down" has been going on, it is quite logical to see the good people of America are good and do not expect this much bad to be real.
Americans have been "raised" to believe in our "laws". What laws now we can ask.
Legal Schnauzer you weren't cheated out of your job, you were literally cheated out of your property rights' - all of them.
Your physical well being has been violated and Mrs., too.
Both Mrs. and You have had all your property rights' stolen, in reality and that is far worse than a cheat.
Just as Scrushy was indeed being set up to be a perjurer and indeed a snitch is a backstabber that typically needs to get out of a criminal charge and thus, goes on the snitch - big lies to little lies to sometimes telling a whole truth. Snitches are basically Judas Goats, so to speak, in my understanding.
America was being taken into the new century under the order of pre Magna Carta. That's at least what the intention was in the NWO.
Return to kings and queens, IT technology got to make it happen.
The "safety" - militant police state, and the "security" - gulag of no escape from technology spying 24/7-365, etc.
Of course then, taking all the labor wealth of Mrs. and Mr. Legal Schnauzer, after "winning" all M/M LS property/ies, because in Rome, BC, "enemy combatant" was defined and got to lose everything to the Roman Empire in a "war".
NEW WORLD OLD DISORDER.
One legislative effort to achieve huge donations from corporations was initially started with a premeditated judicial crime:
ReplyDeleteUNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff
v.
JEFFREY LYNN SPRUILL,
Defendant.
On April 24, 1996, this Court ordered the defendant, Jeffrey
Lynn Spruill, committed to the costody of the Attorney General for a provisional term of five (5) years. Spruill was convicted on
August 14, 1995 of three counts of violating 18 U.S.C.844(e).
At the end of the sentencing hearing, the Court neglected to
inform the defendant of his right to file a notice of appeal if he
desires to appeal. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(c)(5), the defendant is hereby informed that he has an absolute right to file a notice of appeal with this Court. Said notice of appeal must be in writing. Defendant shall have twenty (20) days from the date here of to file said notice of appeal.
The United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia
is ORDERED to personally serve the defendant, Jeffrey Lynn Spruill with a copy of this order forthwith.
The Clerk of the Court is DIRECTED to forward copies of this order to counsel for the parties.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
At Norfolk, Virginia
April 25, 1996
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Amendment_(1997)
The government really pulled a head fake on the perpetually irascible- premeditated criminal judge & enemy combatant groupie-- Robert G. Doumar:
ReplyDelete"Who ordered the hearing?" Doumar asked, wondering numerous times out loud, "What's going on?"
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/05/judge-calls-detention-coal-ship-very-arbitrary
It is unfortunate the Obama administration isn't doing more to clean up the mess in the "justice" system. it isn't as if he is going to run for re election. Cleaning up the justice system might be a nice legacy to leave.
ReplyDeleteYou watch the news and they are spending a whole lot of time on the Bengazi issue. Its important but the greater threat to the U.S.A. is their internal "justice" system.
The American 'justice' system does boggle the mind. Perhaps much of it is tied to the "entertainment" value of trials. If Alabama t.v. spent as much time on the issues in its own state instead of a murder trial in utah, people might actually find out what is going on. What is going on in a Utah murder trial isn't going to impact on people in Alabama, but an unfair legal system certainly will.
National t.v. systems spend much too much time on "entertainment" trials. Its not how the justice system is supposed to work. If t.v. stations spent as much time exploring and exposing corruption and unfairness in their state and country, the taxpayers would be saving a lot more money and people might have a fair chance in court.
Even if there was a law the former governor had broken, he was sentenced to an obscene amount of time. If there actually was a law and he had broken it, 18months, out in 9 is about what it is worth. It is not unreasonable to conclude Alabama has gone the route of some many other countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Russia, China, etc. You put your political opposition in jail for a very long time so they can't cause you any problems. That was not the idea when the U.S.A. was founded.
it maybe the "entertainmnet" value comes from the possibility of a death sentence. The Americans were always interested in watching people die. In Canada we don't have a death penalty. For first degree murder, it is simply 25 yrs before a chance at parole. Some of course never gain parole, but that is limited to a few. it saves the government a lot of money on trials and jails. We have a lower rate of murder to boot.
How a former governor went to jail for something which wasn't even against the law is just too much for me to comprehd. Of course there are lots of people who were executed but innocent also.