It’s about that time of year again.
No, I’m not talking about spring break or registering for classes. I’m referring to the Justice Department’s annual scandal of shame.
Last February, I wrote about the forced resignations of U.S. attorneys who were investigating criminal acts committed by friends of the Republican Party.
Shortly after a congressional investigation into former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ involvement with the firings and his possible abuse of domestic spying programs, members of Congress demanded that Gonzales resign. He obligingly stepped down in August of 2007.
But that doesn’t mean the bad publicity has come to an end.
Last Sunday, “60 Minutes” aired a report on yet another misuse of power by the Department of Justice. Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was charged with bribery and sent to prison for seven years last June.
Which doesn’t sound too remarkable until you find out that the star witness in that case against him was a criminal, Bush-appointed federal prosecutors tended to charge Siegelman with crimes whenever he prepared to run for election, and Siegelman was an incredibly successful Democratic politician.
According to “60 Minutes,” while Siegelman was running for re-election in 2002, details about a federal investigation of Siegelman were leaked to the press and he subsequently lost to current Republican Gov. Bob Riley.
In 2004, U.S. attorneys indicted Siegelman, alleging his involvement in a Medicaid scam. The case was thrown out of court on the first day.
In 2006, after preparing to run for governor yet again, Siegelman was again indicted, this time on charges of bribery.
If he hadn’t been convicted, I’m sure that in 2008 the Justice Department would have finally dropped the facade and simply indicted him for being too liberal.
Siegelman’s crime was accepting donations toward a state lottery campaign from Richard Scrushy, and then supposedly appointing him to a health board in return.
The catch is that Scrushy had served on this board under three former governors, and was merely re-appointed by Siegelman.
If federal prosecutors were really worried about the effects of campaign contributions on political decisions, they would have locked up Congress by now. In 2005, The Washington Post dedicated a long article to naming the various campaign contributors who have benefited from President Bush’s policies. Why hasn’t he been indicted?
The prosecution’s case was handled for its first eight months by U.S. Attorney Laura Canary, who just so happens to be married to the man who ran Gov. Bob Riley’s campaign.
A silly little coincidence, I’m sure.
The star witness against Siegelman, former aide Nick Bailey, obtained a lighter sentence for his crimes of extortion in exchange for providing testimony that was so inconsistent, he told “60 Minutes” that prosecutors forced him to practice writing it over and over again.
Republican lawyer Jill Simpson told “60 Minutes” that before federal prosecutors began investigating Bailey, Karl Rove, Bush’s former deputy chief of staff, asked Simpson if she could possibly snap a picture of Siegelman in a compromising position with a female aide.
Rove denies ever meeting Simpson. Of course, when he was subpoenaed by Congress to possibly attest to that fact and be questioned about the Siegelman case, he refused to show up.
The whole story reads like a joke.
Except that spending seven years in prison for being the member of the wrong political party isn’t so funny when you’re behind bars.
The office of U.S. attorney is not intended to be a political one. Yet, the prosecutors in the Siegelman case didn’t even pretend to be fair or unbiased.
Even if Siegelman really is guilty of bribery, the crime the U.S. attorneys have committed in Alabama ““ betraying the public’s trust, in whose interest they should be acting ““ is far more severe than anything Siegelman may have done.
A grand total of 52 former state attorneys generals from both parties have called for a congressional investigation into the case.
We should add our own voices to the call. Write to your representatives in the House and Senate and let them know that no one ““ including Karl Rove and federal prosecutors ““ should be allowed to snub the law.
Send Strickland your predictions for the 2009 Department of Justice scandal at kstrickland@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.