Dubious actions by federal prosecutor Jay Town to protect Alabama Power and Balch Bingham are drawing scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice

Jay Town and Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite

Jay Town, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, has drawn scrutiny from the Department of Justice for a series of dubious actions that appear designed to protect Alabama Power and the scandal-plagued Balch Bingham law firm, according to a report from Publisher K.B. Forbes at banbalch.com. Writes Forbes:

During the pandemic quarantine, we, the CDLU, received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice dated April 7, 2020, confirming that the Office of the Inspector General had reviewed our formal complaint from December against the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jay E. Town, and had forwarded the matter to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the General Counsel of the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys.

Providing the Department of Justice with hard copies of the jaw-dropping photos of Town chugging down cocktails with former Balch Bingham partner and Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, we also supplemented our complaint with two additional packets of evidence and information.

Town’s alleged dirty work for Balch (a half-baked deposition) and refusal to investigate the Newsome Conspiracy Case, allegedly blocking the FBI at least four times, has caused keen interest in his behavior, including possible prosecutorial misconduct.

Town reportedly has at least four times blocked the FBI from investigating the Balch-led effort to steal the lucrative collections practice of Birmingham attorney Burt Newsome by, in part, framing him for a bogus criminal act? Yikes, that is nasty and crooked stuff. In fact, Forbes puts a nice description on it -- which seems to fit snugly:

Prosecutorial misconduct?

Yes, Town’s alleged secret deal to keep Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial.

Town had a bright future ahead but threw it all away because of a half-baked deposition and alleged misconduct that appears to help his friends at Alabama Power and Balch.

As we wrote to the DOJ:

"[We], the CDLU, have sought the affirmation of inherent goodness and best practices from Balch Bingham, Alabama Power, and the U. S. Attorney’s Office in this fight against injustice and unsavory conduct regarding the Newsome Conspiracy Case. All three parties have disappointed us. In our 19 years of advocacy, working closely with law enforcement and federal investigators, we have never, ever been blocked or derailed. We believe you, the Office of Professional Responsibility, have the ability, the tenacity, to correct a wrong."