Karl Rove and his Chamber of Commerce associates are working behind the scenes to help Democrat Doug Jones get elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama

Doug Jones

Major Republican political figures -- including Karl Rove, Tom Donohue, and Bill Canary -- are working behind the scenes to help get Alabama Democrat Doug Jones elected to the U.S. Senate, according to a prominent activist and opposition researcher.

Jones will face Republican Roy Moore in a Dec. 12 special election to fill Jeff Sessions' old seat. Jill Simpson, who helped bring the Don Siegelman political prosecution to light, says pro-business Republicans have made it clear they do not support Moore, who appeals mainly to the religious right/culture war wing of the party. The corporatists are throwing their support behind Jones, in part because he helped them in both the Siegelman and the Alabama bingo prosecutions, via his cozy relationship with GOP operative Rob Riley.

We've already reported that Rove helped funnel government-assignment jobs to Jones during the George W. Bush administration. Now, Simpson says, the Jones-GOP ties go much deeper than that. She also says the Jones-Rob Riley alliance is much tighter and disturbing than most progressives realize. From a Simpson Facebook post yesterday: (With editing for clarity and brevity.)

What a hoot, I have never seen anything like this -- the Karl Rove, Tom Donohue, and Bill Canary Chamber of Commerce types claim they are staying out of the Moore/Jones race, when secretly they have all hands on deck helping Doug Jones. Doug is the Chamber of Commerce candidate in Alabama. Many progressives in Alabama have been viciously mistreated by the chamber, so that will not bode well for Doug. Many progressives have even been investigated by the chamber for working against Republicans, but by golly, the corporate guys are not helping Roy the Republican this time. Right now, it is all out war between Rove Republican elites -- Doug Jones is their guy -- and the Bannon Religious Right/White Republicans, and Roy Moore is their guy from the South and Heartland.

Rove owes Jones, Simpson says, for the Alabamian's help in working with the Eric Holder DOJ to ensure that Rove would not have to testify under oath about the Siegelman case. Writes Simpson:

The Rove Republicans behind the scenes are doing everything they can to help Doug Jones, and if he gets elected, he will owe them, just like they owe him for saving Rove from having to testify under oath -- by cooking the deal between the Riley/Sessions crowd and Holder. 

I might add Holder helped them go after progressives, creating Team Themis while at the DOJ. Even this article shows they are doing stuff with the press to say that not supporting Roy is a way they are supporting Doug for helping them keep Siegelman in prison. 

They might fool some DNC folks, but they won't fool true progressives, who fought in the trenches to keep an innocent man out of prison. As y'all know, I am not a Roy Moore fan either, but I want our progressives in Alabama to know Doug is going to be the Chamber/Rove guy, so don't expect anything out of him for us. If you want to vote for a DNC/Republican candidate, go for it. But don't expect him to do anything for Progressives.

Jones is so ethically challenged that he even has undercut his own law clients. Writes Simpson, in an Oct. 12 Facebook post:

Jones recently appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show and mentioned that he had worked with federal prosecutors. You might want to ask who he worked with, and when he worked with them. It was during the Siegelman and Scrushy case, plus he helped some on the Eric Rudolph and 16th Street Baptist Church bombing cases. Doug has a history of yapping and whispering to the feds.

Karl Rove
(From onwardstate.com)

It might be fun for reporters to start pulling contracts of all the work he did for the U.S. Government, from when he left his U.S. attorney job. You might just be surprised at who employed him. He hinted at it on the Smiley show, as he has to know every detail will come out. Republicans know he was a snitch to the Bush prosecutors and FBI guys he hung out with. He was Mr. Law and Order, even when representing his own criminal defendants. Bless their hearts, they had no idea he had work with the feds.

This is going to be fun to watch play out. My question has always been: Isn't it a conflict to represent the U.S. Government and to be helping the FBI, while also representing criminal defendants faced with federal charges? No wonder his clients got in so much trouble; their lawyer, Doug Jones, was working both sides. If you doubt me. look at the timelines of his biggest cases, plus the Scrushy/Siegelman case.

How ugly is Doug Jones' alliance with Rob Riley? It's real ugly, writes Simpson, filled with Democrats who have knives left between their shoulder blades. From her Oct. 23 Facebook post:

Jones went to work for the top political Republican firm in the state, Haskell Slaughter,  and while yapping about his firm's clients to the Riley Gang, the firm went belly up. Rob Riley wanted to replace Haskell Slaughter with his own outfit as top Republican firm in the state -- and Rob is the behind-the-scenes puppet master of the Jones campaign. The Rileys want the lobbyist funds Jones can provide for connections to his Senate office. Plus, Haskell Slaughter's biggest client, Milton McGregor, almost went to prison, thanks to Doug and Rob yapping to the feds about Milton. The Rileys were angry with Milton because he would not pay them under the table by hiring Rob -- Doug Jones' big buddy --  to do nothing, while Rob's daddy was governor. Milton has said time and again that the Rileys tried to get him to pay Rob bribe money and he refused.

Jones and Rob Riley went to considerable lengths to undermine Montgomery lawyer Tommy Gallion (a longtime McGregor ally) as a power player and take away his business. Jones and Riley also undercut Ronnie Gilley in the Alabama bingo case. Writes Simpson:

I knew Doug and Rob were setting up Milton, in order to help the Poarch Creek Indians and the Holder DOJ in the bingo case. I warned Tommy Gallion, after some of Doug Jones' e-mails got back to me through local reporters. 

Doug and Rob were planning to get rid of Gallion, the most power political handler in the state at the time, as they wanted his clients and business. I told Gallion about it, as he had helped me in the Siegelman matter. Gallion talked to Doug, who denied everything I was saying and even called me; I heard Doug denying it, but I knew he was lying, as my sources were reliable, and I had folks at DOJ and John Conyers' office confirming what Doug and Rob were up to. 

Within a couple of months, it came out out Holder's investigators were listening in on Gallion's line to every word he and Milton McGregor were saying. Milton was charged exactly as I had warned Tommy. Plus, Doug Jones apparently got Ronnie Gilley to confess to a bunch of bullshit, and then Doug was removed as his lawyer when Ronnie learned Doug and Rob were behind the deal in the first place. A woman Ronnie trusted contacted me, as she heard I had warned Gallion, and he didn't listen because Doug was such a good bullshit artist. 

I got contacted by the FBI in south Alabama, who told me to be careful, as I might get hurt for telling what I knew. It was a very scary time for me. Doug Jones and Rob Riley were taking their power trip, as they wanted to run our state with the Riley Gang -- and for whatever reason, felt they needed rid of Gallion. 

That my friends is a bad deal. So I write about it now, as Doug Jones and Rob Riley really are a tag team from hell.