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| Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump |
During the four years of the Donald Trump presidency, a small army of Alabamians -- one could call them "lackeys" -- maintained close ties to the White House. Many of them had connections to the North Birmingham bribery scandal, which still is generating plumes of foul odor. Now is the time for federal invesgigators to sift through the wreckage and sort out the bad actors, asserts banbalch.com Publisher K.B. Forbes -- and he even provides a handy roadmap. Under the headline "Is the U.S. Department of Justice Probing Trump-Era Lackeys from Alabama?" Forbes writes:
Since November, we have been told by high-level sources that a federal investigation is ongoing in Birmingham and focused on “obstruction” and other alleged crimes. Balch & Bingham appears to be in disarray, suffering from internal strife since late last year and we know that something is going on.
In Tuesday’s post, we outlined five areas that could potentially lead to more federal indictments.
Today, we list a cast of characters that should be interviewed by federal investigators.
Undoubtedly, backers, insiders, lackeys, and stooges from Alabama who were tied to the Trump Administration appear to have tried to protect their web of power, allegedly obstruct justice, possibly cover up alleged criminal acts, and limit additional investigations during the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, Trial, and aftermath.
Let's take a numerical look at Forbes' scorecard, which includes a number of characters who might develop tight sphincters if the feds come knocking on doors. We start with a pair who forever will be joined at the hip in symbolizing the toxic fumes that envelop Alabama's corporate, political, and courthouse environments:
(1) Jay Town and Mark Crosswhite --
The photos of Alabama Power CEO and former Balch partner Mark A. Crosswhite enjoying refreshing cocktails at the Moon Shine Lounge with then-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, allegedly at the height of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, symbolize the enormous power, bottomless financial resources, and unlimited influence Alabama Power has.
The ties between the Three Stooges (Balch, Alabama Power, and Drummond) and the Trump Administration were intensely close.
The common denominator is the Trump Administration appointees, such as . . .
(2) Jeff Sessions --
When President Donald J. Trump, as a candidate, was to be endorsed by then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions in 2016, the original venue was to be at the hangar of Black Hall Aerospace in Huntsville, a Balch & Bingham client.
Sessions' number one lifetime donor was Alabama Power, while his number two lifetime donor was Alabama Power’s sister-wife Balch & Bingham, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sessions' high profile leads to . . .
(3) Jeffrey H. Wood --
After Trump’s victory in 2016, Jeff Sessions became U.S. Attorney General and Balch partner Jeffrey H. Wood, a lobbyist who was on Capitol Hill on behalf of Alabama Power at the height of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal in 2016, was nominated as Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). From Sessions and Wood, the Alabama-related appointments started flowing like a raging river, leading to . . .
(4) Luther Strange --
Balch stooge and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange was appointed U.S. Senator in February of 2017 after Sessions became U.S. Attorney General. The biggest, if not smelliest, alleged crime we uncovered was the $25,000 contribution alleged bribe to Luther Strange that was allegedly hand-delivered by the Drummond family to Strange after
he signed and sent a letter drafted by Balch against the North
Birmingham CERCLA matter, on official Alabama Attorney General
letterhead. Beyond the alleged bribe contribution to Strange, federal authorities should look at the alleged “just-cut-a-check-and-don’t-ask-questions” bribery ring involving some of the most powerful corporations in Alabama. Each and every executive at Drummond, including “confused” General Cousel Blake Andrews, every member of Drummond’s Board of Directors, and all Drummond family members involved with the company need to be interrogated by federal investigators. Then, along came . . .
(5) Trey Glenn --
Trey Glenn, the former Executive Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and a Balch & Bingham consultant, was appointed EPA Administrator for the Region Four in August of 2017. Glenn lasted about a year on the job, and he could make for a terrific federal witness. Here's why: In November of 2020, AL.com reported that Glenn had struck a plea deal in his criminal ethics case writing:
Last week, [Glenn] pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor violations of the Alabama Ethics Act. As part of the deal, prosecutors dropped felony charges against him, and he won’t spend any time in jail. Instead, he must pay $10,000 in fines and keep his nose clean during two years of unsupervised probation.“Part of the understanding is that Mr. Glenn will testify truthfully in any matter in which we call him and subpoena him as a witness,” Alabama Ethics Commission General Counsel Cynthia Raulston told the court.
From there, our roadmap circles back to . . .
That summer of 2017, Jay E. Town was nominated and confirmed as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. Town arrived from the Richard Shelby orbit to become an important Trump ally and appointee. But he seemed to step into prosecutorial doo-doo: (a) Town allegedly told others, according to sources, that his nomination was confirmed too late in 2017 by the U.S. Senate for him to kill the North Birmingham Bribery Trial and that some would have to stand trial; (b) Town appears to have cut a secret deal to keep Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the trial; (c) After the criminal convictions in 2018, Town refused to expand the North Birmingham Bribery investigation and
declared that Balch’s Joel I. Gilbert and ex-Drummond executive David
Roberson were “lone wolves,” which law enforcement officers and others
saw as a betrayal; (d) Town never pursued additional charges or
suspects in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal. Consultants Trey Glenn
and Scott Phillips were left free until both of them were indicted by a local grand jury in Jefferson County for ethics violation in 2018; (e) Town never pursued Luther Strange or investigated the alleged bribe $25,000 contribution; (f) Town allegedly blocked four different FBI investigations of the Newsome Conspiracy Case; (g) Knowing
there are no such things as coincidences, the half-baked deposition
with Verizon in the Newsome Conspiracy Case appears to be a centerpiece
in the alleged dirty work linked to Town; (h) And what law firm represents Verizon regularly? McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter in Morristown, New Jersey, just one mile away from
Verizon’s Corporate Headquarters. And who worked for McElroy, Deutsch,
Mulvaney & Carpenter before his career as a prosecutor? Jay E. Town. We can't think about Town without thinking of his drinking buddy . . .
(7) Mark Crosswhite -- And that brings us to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. During the 2019-2020 election cycle, the single largest contribution from Alabama Power Employees Federal PAC went to the Rule of Law Defense Fund, the entity that launched robocalls the day before the insurrection mob marched to, and desecrated, the U.S. Capitol. The robocall stated, “The March to Save America is tomorrow in Washington, D.C…. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” according to The Washington Post. In addition, allegedly Alabama Power had a secret deal where it was “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery criminal trial. Alabama Power was the only entity that donated to the money-laundering entity known as the Alliance for Jobs and the Economy (AJE) that did NOT testify during the trial in 2018. Was the utility and its agents “unindicted masterminds?” Alabama Power was briefed regularly about the North Birmingham shenanigans. Crosswhite boasted in 2016 that he enjoys being the final decision maker as the leader of the utility. When speaking to investigators, will Crosswhite admit he made the final decision to funnel $25,000 to the Rule of Law entity or will he blame others? Will he even acknowledge an alleged secret deal with the Office of the U.S. Attorney or will that remain unmentionable?
How did the Alabama lackeys fare once they became enmeshed in Trump World? Not so well, as Forbes notes:
- Strange was defeated in 2017;
- Sessions was fired in 2018 and lost his election for U.S. Senate in 2020;
- Trey Glenn resigned in 2018 and was indicted shortly thereafter by a local grand jury;
- Wood was shown the door in 2019;
- Jay E. Town resigned and fled in the middle of the night in 2020;
- The CEO of Balch’s client, Black Hall Aerospace, was indicted in 2020; and
- President Trump’s Economic Advisory Councils were disbanded in 2021.
As new events crackle around the Superfund scandal, individuals and entities connected to it have not exactly projected an aura of calm. Writes Forbes:
The Three Stooges (Drummond Company, Balch, and Alabama Power) fiercely sought protective orders in December of 2020 in the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal -- via David Roberson’s $75-million civil lawsuit, which has since been sealed in its entirety.
What are they afraid of? The Three Stooges have shown concern and vivid panic, and investigators need to probe.
Crosswhite, Town, Glenn, Strange, Sessions, Wood and others close to them should be interviewed by criminal investigators if they haven’t been already.
We know something is going on.
10 comments:
I suggest that Jeff Sessions be No. 1 on the interview hit parade. What a weasel.
How conflicted was Jay Town in the Superfund case? Consider this from a 3/21 post here at LS:
One question comes immediately to mind: If Drummond bribed Strange, did the company bribe other political figures in Alabama? Strange hardly was alone in his opposition to the EPA's plans in North Birmingham, but former U.S. Attorney Jay Town apparently took steps to protect certain individuals and entities. From one of our posts on the subject:
Watchdog group calls for Jay Town's recusal from Superfund case because of ties to politicos
In August 2017, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) noted Town's conflicts related to the bribery scandal and released a letter that called for him to step down from the case: The reason? Town's ties to certain Alabama political figures. From the letter:
On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, under the leadership of an acting U.S. Attorney, publicly announced an ongoing public corruption investigation that involves the law firm Balch Bingham, the coal company Drummond, and their alleged role in bribing a state legislator in Alabama to block the expansion of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site in Birmingham. That state legislator has admitted to taking bribes from Balch and Drummond.
POGO’s reason for calling upon you to recuse yourself is that three key officials who are your political allies and supported your appointment as U.S. Attorney—Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Senator Luther Strange, and Senator Richard Shelby—all have deep political, financial, or personal ties to Balch and Drummond. Furthermore, Senator Strange has been linked to the bribery scandal.
https://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2021/03/did-lawsuit-discovery-pointing-to.html
Here is more on Jay Town's conflicts:
What about details on Town's connections to Sessions, Strange, and Shelby? POGO provides them:
In Alabama, there have been public allegations that Senator Strange was present when bribes were offered related to the Birmingham Superfund site (Senator Strange disputes these allegations). As Alabama Attorney General, Senator Strange filed letters with the EPA in October 2014 and January 2015 declaring that the state would not provide any funding for the cleanup of the Birmingham Superfund site, located in a poor African American neighborhood. The Drummond Co. donated $25,000 to his campaign two weeks before the first letter in October 2014 and another $25,000 a month after the second letter in January 2015. A POGO report provides further details, quoting from the letter to Town:
You twice advised Senator Strange in political campaigns. He subsequently supported your nomination for U.S. Attorney. Senator Strange is now alleged to be involved in a bribery scandal under investigation by the office of which you are now in charge.
Another public supporter of your nomination as U.S. Attorney is Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Balch and Drummond were, respectively, Senator Sessions second and third largest sources of campaign funding during his Senate career—and through their political action committees and employees have contributed an approximate total of $300,000 to his campaigns since the late 1990s.
As you may be aware, several Balch attorneys have worked in Senator Sessions’ office through the years. Currently, his high-profile deputy —Jeffrey H. Wood, the acting Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division—was a Balch partner up until he joined the Justice Department the day President Trump was inaugurated. Mr. Wood has recused himself from any matter involving Balch and has specifically listed the Superfund site in Birmingham in his recusal list. You should follow Mr. Wood’s lead and recuse yourself as well. We have also requested that Attorney General Sessions recuse himself.
Finally, Senator Richard Shelby, another principal sponsor of your nomination as U.S. Attorney, and for whom you appeared in a television campaign commercial in 2016, is a longtime recipient of campaign money from Balch and Drummond. According to public records, Senator Shelby has received approximately $110,000 from Balch and $155,500 from Drummond over his last three election cycles (1999-2016).
From an Oct. 2017 post, with the headline: " List of Alabama politicos tied to North Birmingham Superfund bribery scandal grows to include Richard Shelby, Luther Strange, Gary Palmer, Robert Bentley, Jabo Waggoner, and Jessica Medeiros Garrison"
Let' consider to AL politicos who largely have snuck under the radar:
Robert Bentley and Jabo Waggoner
Drummond was a major political benefactor of former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned in April amid an embarrassing sex scandal. Bentley’s administration fiercely battled the EPA’s Superfund push in North Birmingham, yet he was hardly alone. Among the state officials who assisted Drummond and Balch was one of the longest-serving members of the state Legislature, Republican Sen. J.T. “Jabo” Waggoner, who in 2015 successfully introduced a resolution opposing the EPA actions at the 35th Avenue Superfund site. According to the Justice Department, the measure was in fact authored by Balch’s Joel Gilbert.
https://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2017/10/list-of-alabama-politicos-tied-to-north.html
Meantime in Alabama law enforcement is busy catching people who litter garveyards!
https://www.wtvm.com/2022/02/08/auburn-man-arrested-leaving-flowers-fiancs-grave/
And what about Jessica Medeiros Garrison?
[Jeffrey] Wood, [Ed] Haden, and other Balch lawyers spearheaded high-profile legal fights with the Obama-era EPA. Wood and Haden represented Republican members of Congress in a 2016 court filing siding with West Virginia as it fought EPA carbon emission standards at coal power plants. The lawsuit appeared to be coordinated by coal behemoth Murray Energy and the fossil fuel industry-funded Republican Attorneys General Association. RAGA’s executive director at the time, Jessica Medeiros Garrison, was simultaneously an attorney at Balch from 2011 through 2016. She has also worked for Sessions.
Thanks for sharing, @1:18. Nice to know Alabama law enforcement has its priorities straight.
Don't be too hard on Alabama Power!
They supported* the Alabama Council for Excellent Government.
*Pretty sure the "assistant to the executive vice president of Alabama Power" would be expected to get prior approval for all political 'extra curricular' activities. Especialy ones like serving on the board of a 501c(4) which has a mission statement that reads:
The Alabama Council for Excellent Government exists to support Gov. Bentley in his efforts to solve real problems and to make Alabama greater, stronger and more excellent for all the hardworking men and women who call this great state our home.
Thanks for an interesting comment, @1:40. In a 9/18 post, we reported that ACEGOV was known in political circles as Bentley's "Girlfriend Fund":
ohn Archibald and Chuck Dean, of al.com, were among the MSM reporters who largely ignored the scandal -- and even attacked me, as the journalist who broke the story -- until audiotapes surfaced, proving the affair and making it impossible to ignore. Were Archibald, Dean, and their news organization paid to look the other way on the "Luv Guv" Bentley story?
That is one of several interesting questions raised by APR's latest report, from editor Bill Britt. Here is another: Why is Gov. Kay Ivey continuing to use state dollars to fund Bentley's defense?
Officially, the fund in question is called ACEGOV, but insiders have come to know it as the "Girlfriend Fund." Reports Britt:
Known in political circles as the "Girlfriend Fund,” because it paid money to Bentley’s alleged girlfriend, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, ACEGOV is a 501(c)(4) set-up in Feb. 2015, by Bentley’s then-General Counsel Cooper Shattuck to promote Bentley’s political agenda.
https://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2018/09/luv-guv-bentley-hides-donors-to-his.html
Here's more on the high-minded ACEGOV --
Why is information about ACEGOV's financial backers so sensitive? Britt addresses that question:
Over a year ago, when it became clear that Ivey would replace Bentley as governor, a member of Ivey’s inner-circle approached Collier with a suggested promise of a resolution. However, since taking office, Ivey’s administration has spent hundreds of thousands to defend Bentley. . . .
Why Ivey changed her position on a resolution with Collier is unknown, but those close to the lawsuit believe certain individuals and companies that supported ACEGOV don’t want to suffer the humiliating blowback from their names being exposed by Collier’s lawsuit.
Collier was fired from his position at ALEA after he refused to follow Bentley’s order to lie to prosecutors in the Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard criminal case. . . .
Collier’s firing grew out of actions taken by Hubbard’s attorney Lance Bell, who in January 2016, contacted ALEA to arrange for attorney and radio host Baron Coleman to issue a complaint accusing prosecutor Matt Hart of leaking grand jury information. Bell’s actions are recounted in an affidavit by Hal Taylor, current ALEA Secretary.
Does ACEGOV, in many ways, represent the underbelly of Alabama politics? Britt suggests the answer is yes, and those who helped support the fund apparently know it:
Not only does Collier’s lawsuit raise questions about the state’s choice of representation; it also unearths a long suspected question as to why Gov. Ivey would go to such great lengths to protect Bentley.
Collier is asking the court to compel Bentley to identify donors he solicited to fund ACEGOV or those who contributed to the fund of which he has personal knowledge. It is widely suspected that a who’s who of business owners and corporate entities funded the non-profit to curry favor with Mason, who was Bentley’s close adviser.
Suggested payoffs to news outlets and radio talk show hosts for favorable coverage of the Bentley administration is also believed to have been part of ACEGOV’s secret mission.
According to Bentley’s state-funded legal team, “Collier’s motion makes baseless assertions that are not supported by the evidence.”
Perhaps the bigger question being asked in Montgomery is why is the Ivey administration so doggedly defending Bentley instead of putting the matter to rest?
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