If Bob Riley and Mike Hubbard really talked about "everything," that suggests the former Speaker knows about, but never reported, massive corruption

Mike Hubbard
(From wiat.com)

What was the most intriguing moment in the Mike Hubbard trial, which ended with the former Alabama House Speaker convicted on 12 counts of ethics-law violations? There are plenty of choices, but the one that stood out to me came when former Governor Bob Riley was asked on the stand about his relationship with Hubbard. Here is how al.com described it:

Riley testified that he and Hubbard talked so frequently that some of their conversations could just be called "banter."

"You have to understand my relationship with Mike. . . .  We talk about everything," Riley said.

If Riley is to be believed here -- and that's a big if -- he told Hubbard "everything" about dubious activities the former governor, his family members, and allies have been involved in over probably the past 20 years or so.

What does that mean? It could mean that Hubbard -- who has been described as a greedy, lying, cheating, arrogant, self-centered tyrant -- could be way worse than that. It suggests Hubbard has a severe character or personality disorder--likely antisocial personality disorder, also known as sociopathy. It suggests Hubbard might be dealing with narcissistic personality disorder, too.

We are not qualified to make a medical diagnosis of Hubbard or anyone else. But we do know one state journalist has compared him to Caligula. Based on the implications of Bob Riley's testimony, that might be an insult to Caligula.

If Riley actually told Hubbard about "everything" associated with his tenure as governor and the activities of the political machine that has come to be known as Riley Inc. -- and Hubbard reported none of it to authorities -- well, that means the Speaker is a seriously warped individual, who probably needs to be incarcerated to the fullest extent of the law. It also might mean that he should be prosecuted for at least one federal crime -- ironically, one now associated with the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

What would it mean if Bob Riley told Hubbard "everything." It probably means Hubbard knows about a bottomless pit of corruption--much of it involving felonies, or significant civil liability--and he's kept it largely to himself. That's not how it's supposed to work, under the law.

Just consider what Hubbard likely knows involving my wife, Carol, and me:

* He knows who cheated me out of my job at UAB, after I had worked there for 20 years;

* He knows who cheated Carol out of her job at Infinity Insurance, where she had worked for three years;

* He knows who caused Carol and me to be cheated in our federal employment-discrimination cases. (Mine also included First Amendment issues.) In my case, Judge William M. Acker II flagrantly violated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Eleventh Circuit case law by considering summary judgment before any discovery was conducted. In fact, Acker never allowed any discovery in the case, which simply cannot be done under black-letter law. In Carol's case, Infinity's lawyers never responded to key discovery requests, especially those that would have shown she was treated differently than her "comparators,'' those Infinity employees who were similarly situated to her in the work environment. Infinity's lawyers said they "were going to" provide the requested information, but they never did it, and Judge T. Michael Putman let them get away with it;

* He knows who arranged to have Shelby County deputies kidnap me and throw me in jail for five months, making me the only U.S. journalist since 2006 to be incarcerated;

* He knows who caused our home of 25 years to be stolen out from under us via a likely wrongful foreclosure;

* He knows who arranged for Carol and me to be unlawfully evicted in September 2015 here in Missouri, with an assault rifle aimed at me and a deputy brutalizing Carol and leaving her with a broken left arm.

Now. let's consider what Hubbard likely knows about events that do not involve Carol or me. This is nowhere near a comprehensive list, by the way:

* He knows that then Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor was assigned (by Karl Rove?) to investigate Don Siegelman before the Democratic governor's fanny had barely touched his chair in 1999;

* He knows how millions of laundered dollars made their way from Indian gaming interests in Mississippi to help "defeat" Siegelman in the 2002 governor's race against Riley;

* He knows who arranged to steal the 2002 election, with Siegelman votes disappearing overnight in Baldwin County, and how it was done;

* He knows how certain GOP kingpins (Karl Rove? Bill Canary?) arranged for a bogus prosecution of Siegelman, and who ensured that corrupt federal judge and Bush appointee Mark Fuller got the case;

* He knows who arranged for the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to repeatedly violate its own precedents to ensure that at least some of the Siegelman convictions would be upheld;

* He knows who arranged for Riley and current AG Luther Strange to develop a pipeline to the Alabama Supreme Court, resulting in repeated dubious rulings against VictoryLand, Country Crossing, and other non-Indian gaming facilities.

Noor Salman
(From wptv.com)

How ugly could all of this be? We've written about the deaths of five prominent Alabamians, all of which were labeled "suicides" (or in one case, a murder via home break-in), even though evidence strongly suggests at least some of them were murders. The victims -- most of whom had direct or indirect connections to GOP financial maneuvers during the Riley years -- were Major Bashinsky, Ralph Stacy, Bob Caviness, Zoa White and Charles "Bubba" Major.

Does Mike Hubbard know what happened to some, or all, of these individuals? Does he know about some, or all, of the other events mentioned above? If he does -- and he failed to report it to authorities and took steps to conceal it, he might have committed "misprision of a felony," a crime described at 18 U.S. Code 4:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

Noor Salman, the wife of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, could face misprision charges if an investigation shows she knew her husband was about to commit an act of violence and failed to notify authorities.

The 12 counts for which Mike Hubbard was convicted under the ethics law certainly are serious matters. But they might seem relatively mundane if details become known about conversations Hubbard and Bob Riley have had over the years.