Alabama governor’s conviction gets Justice Department scrutiny

[maddezmom]

Alabama governor’s conviction gets Justice Department scrutiny
Thursday, May 22, 2008, 04:45 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Justice Department says it is investigating whether former Alabama governor Don Siegelman was the target of a selective, politically motivated prosecution.

Click here to read the letter from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, released this afternoon by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.).

Most media outlets are focusing on the subpoena issued to Karl Rove, the former Bush advisor, by the House committee. But the Justice Department letter may be more important, an indication that Attorney General Michael Mukasey is taking seriously the allegations surrounding the Siegelman case.

In June 2006, the former Alabama governor, a Democrat, was convicted by a federal jury of taking $500,000 from Richard Scrushy, former chief executive of HealthSouth Corp. The trade-off alleged by prosecutors was an appointment for Scrushy to the Alabama hospital licensing board.

more:http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2008/05/22/alabama_governors_conviction_g.html

[MasonJar]

1. Oh, sure, that will really go places just like all JD investigations.

Mukassey is as evil as the others. They just want to slow things down until Bush leaves office.

[BobTheSubgenius]

2. This is a story that makes my blood boil.

I particularly noted this from the article:

"Siegelman’s lawyers have characterized the cash as a routine political contribution, and point out Scrushy had served on the same board under three previous governors."

Perhaps the three previous gov's could share DS's sentence, if his railroading isn't overturned.

Not being an American, I have am loath to cast these aspersions with a broad brush (any time, really, although the narrow strokes are far from beyond me), but....honest to God.....much more of this realpolitik and America is going to be well down the road to becoming a banana republic. I wonder if anything is beyond 'them'.