Is Alabama Part of the U.S. Attorneys Scandal?

Posted by jill
June 1, 2007

The associate, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Hmmmmm, big deal, or not?

Posted by Florida
June 1, 2007

I thought you said this was a nothing story, Jay?

Posted by jill
June 1, 2007

And, according to Josh Marshall, the feds want to sentence this guy for 30 years! The Dukestir got a 1/4 of that and he actually took money and benefitted personally.

Posted by Transitions in Gov
June 1, 2007

Share your thoughts on Federal Agency management at www.transitionsingov.org

Posted by CT Voter
June 1, 2007

An aide to Rove boasting that Rove had done anything isn't all that incriminating.

Hearing Rove boast that he had instructed the DOJ to investigate Siegelman? Now that WOULD be something.

In any event, seems to me a couple of prominent Time employees pretty much pooh-poohed this whole episode a while back (Richard Stengel--Dems investigating Karl Rove is a bad thing for Dems and, I find it boring, to boot!)--why the interest now in this?

Posted by Crust
June 1, 2007

Here's Josh Marshall on this one:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014413.php

Posted by p_lukasiak
June 1, 2007

"why the interest now in this?"

please stop looking a gift horse in the mouth. Thank you.

Posted by rufkd
June 1, 2007

Main justice forced Ms Canary to recuse herself from Siegelman's case based on conflicts Siegelman's attorney raised at the time that her husband had been the current governor's campaign manager. That lawyer, David Cromwell Johnson, who died was owed substantial legal fees which Siegelman did not pay to his estate on grounds a dead man cannot collect legal fees. Leura's definitely a "loyal Bushie" as you won't find her on Kyle Sampson's chart.

Posted by arch stanton
June 1, 2007

"please stop looking a gift horse in the mouth. Thank you."

Sorry, still not enough. Where's the investigative reporting? Put the pieces together Time, remember when journalists went after the news, as opposed to waiting for it to come to them? Thats all this story is...
(knock knock) Hi! Who are you?

I'm the US attorney scandal. Something just happened...will you write about me?

Hmmmm...dunno, just heard a rumor that John Edwards once spent $100 on a manny/peddy.

Its really, really important. They wanna give some guy 30 years, and something really smells bad about this whole thing.

Hmmm, Okay, but don't start thinking that this is a big deal or anything, its really nothing you know. US attys serve at the pleasure of the president. Sorry, but thats the truth of it, in much the same way that marriages in France have a 7 year out, or that Nancy Pelosi demanded a plane big enough for all her fancy America hating liberal friends and family to fly on whenever they want. Listen, thanx for stopping by but I've got a cocktail party to go to and I hear we're in the middle of a leprosy epidemic...buh-bye.

Posted by Crust
June 1, 2007

Florida:
"I thought you said this was a nothing story, Jay?"

In fairness, Jay did put up a subsequent post retracting his original view that this was likely a nothing story. So e.g. did Jason Zengerle at TNR.

That said, I found their original posts bizarre. The firing of Carol Lam in the midst of a major investigation alone should have been plenty to demand a vigorous investigation. Let alone the unprecedented nature of a mass firing of AGs by the President who appointed them, the appointing of Rove associate and oppo researcher Griffin, etc. All this was known at the time.

Both Carney and Zengerle pitched their retractions as giving props to Marshall for his remarkable insight. But while I don't want to deny Marshall serious credit here, certainly by the time Carney and Zengerle were proclaiming it a non-story that was already pretty manifestly wrong in my view.

Posted by A Hermit
June 1, 2007

Jay Carney...still playing catch-up with TPM.

Posted by Crust
June 1, 2007

"mass firing of AGs" was a Freudians slip or wishful thinking. Firing AG Gonzales is what Bush should be doing, and failing that, what Congress should be doing via impeachment. But what I meant of course was "mass firing of USAs" (United States Attorneys).

Posted by arch stanton
June 1, 2007

'In fairness, Jay did put up a subsequent post retracting his original view that this was likely a nothing story. '

Yeah, but has dentist/doctor's office Time done a major story on it yet? I'm really asking cuz I don't read that garbage and don't know, I'm guessing the answer is no.

Posted by Crust
June 1, 2007

A Hermit:
"Jay Carney...still playing catch-up with TPM."

Actually, I see Josh is quoting the Time article that Jay's post is about. So no, not in this case.

Posted by squid696
June 1, 2007

O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you’re a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/preserving-the-white-christian-male-power-structure/

Why has no one at Swampland commented on this and Saint McCain's non-repudiation?

Posted by p_lukasiak
June 1, 2007

Hey guys, I hate to break it to you, but Jay has been doing a pretty decent job the last couple of days. I think maybe Karen is rubbing off on him...

Posted by lister
June 1, 2007

Griffin sure has left in a hurry. Not that I'm complaining, but you know, civil servants dedicated to their jobs and not "serving at the president's whim" tend to do better jobs and stay in them. Hence the whole Hatch act. But then, that assumes that the president is interested more in seeing to the nation's welfare than seeing to giving bennies to friends, contributors, and friends of contributors.

I'm sort of wondering if the civil service unions are going to get involved here, as Bush's administration seems to have violated all sorts of civil service regs.

Posted by cfaller96
June 1, 2007

OK Jay, you get a hat tip in my Daily Update on this. I know you were hoping for one.

Good boy, Jay, good boy.

Posted by bobcn
June 1, 2007

Wow!!

BTW - Kudos to Time and kudos to Jay.

Posted by Elvis Elvisberg
June 1, 2007

Yeah, p_lukasiak has this one. Time has done original reporting on this story, and Josh Marshall is linking to it. This is a scoop, and a very interesting one. Plus, Jay has been thoughtful and open to interaction around here of late.

Even when others have done things to merit well-founded frustration, you need not treat them rudely for all time. One occasion in particular that may call for acting politely is when others respond to your valid complaints and change their behavior accordingly.

You're all welcome!

Posted by anon
June 1, 2007

Finally, Alabama's on the Bush scandal radar. There's a lot more there than meets the eye. It's pretty clear that Siegelman is corrupt, what isn't clear is that he was investigated/convicted fairly.

AL is way ahead of the rest of the country in Rove years. Rove started managing the judicial elections for the GOP years ago, well before Bush ran for president. He took a 100% Dem judiciary and turned it, bascially, 100% GOP in about ten years. And then, one he owned the refs, he started playing with state elections and various appointments. He created all kinds of astro-turf committees/think tanks/etc. (like, say, the Alabama Policy Institute) and laundered all kinds of money and fraud into elections throughout the state. Riley's victory over Siegelman looks like a practice run for Bush v. Gore--disputed votes, votes counted in secret by Rove-related DAs, evidence distroyed, and so on. It's hard to get a sense of the depth of the corruption in AL because Rove owns the refs. Various corrupt judges and politicians have kept innocent or marginally corrupt Dems in the news while suppressing wildy corrupt GOP activities. I don't think you find a city in the state were someone who owed their career to Rove didn't indict a Dem shortly before an election--from dog catcher to Gov. And that not even mentioning the state university "scandals" or the mysterious oil contracts (yes, AL has oil) or the cruise ship ports or the strange defense/DHS contracts or or... on it goes.

Posted by amberglow
June 1, 2007

Every single state is part of it--either attorneys were fired for not putting forward fake voting fraud cases, or they stayed because they did put fake voting fraud and other cases forward (see NJ for one who stayed because he put false charges against Menendez during the election).

Posted by amberglow
June 1, 2007

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/majority-of-majority-by-digby-tim.html -- "... Karl knew that wouldn't be enough. He needed to control the legal machinery to ensure that all these close elections he was engineering would fall his way. So he planted political operatives in the Justice Department and kept a close eye on anything that could affect elections. Just today it's been revealed that he had a hand in the corruption trial of the Democratic Governor of Alabama: ...
Rove is not a stupid man. He knows that the GOP base is extreme and that when the great middle gets a clear look at them they recoil in horror. (See Circus, Schiavo.) He correctly deduced that to keep Republicans in power he had to permanently rig the system. So he did. And if it hadn't been for the war it might just have worked. The key to Rove's success was to keep elections close enough to they could steal them. He just didn't have enough time to get the machinery in place before all hell broke loose. ...
the underlying strength of the machine he's put in place to steal elections. They aren't very good at governance, we know that. But they have been remarkably good at winning close elections. It failed him this time in the face of an unpopular war and an unpopular president but I wouldn't assume that the machine is permanently diabled. They're just changing the oil. ..."

Posted by amberglow
June 1, 2007

Generally, until Jay--the DC Bureau Chief, no?--puts this in the regular magazine as well as online he deserves all the scorn he gets. This whole thing is massive and still-growing daily and it's not being printed. A magazine like Time is the perfect place for all the threads to be woven together and it's pathetic that they aren't doing it. State-by-state analysis, all the cases everywhere that were put forward around election times, the attorney firings, the hiring illegalities, the marshalling of all fed agencies to work for the GOP, etc...

Posted by amberglow
June 1, 2007

Also, newspapers only cover bits of the story as they come out and don't connect them, and tv is even worse--Time could tie it all together--and did so with other giant scandals like Iran/Contra and Watergate and others--even stupidity like Monica.

Posted by p_lukasiak
June 1, 2007

"Also, newspapers only cover bits of the story as they come out and don't connect them, and tv is even worse--Time could tie it all together--and did so with other giant scandals like Iran/Contra and Watergate and others--even stupidity like Monica."

Amber, while I agree with you about the overall failure of Time, and while its contrary to my nature to defend Jay, the simple fact is that he is merely the Washington Bureau chief, and does not determine the content of the dead tree edition of Time -- and he's shown improvement over the last couple of days.

Of course, when Jay screws up, you'll have to pry the keyboard from my cold dead hands if you expect to get in front of me in the line of Carney Critics...

Posted by James, Los Angeles
June 1, 2007

Good line, Paul.

Posted by ama
June 2, 2007

Adam Zagorin just posted a story on Time.com reporting in depth on developments in the trial and sentencing of Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama.
*****
Jay, Adam did a good job on this one. I'm so glad someone is finally focusing on this. Hat tip to TIME, NYT, and to Josh Marshall as well.

Like anon above, I think Siegelman was a wee bit sullied, but I don't think what he did merits 30 years imprisonment when we had a guy in my community some years ago who literally stole millions and millions from people unable to look out for themselves. He was supposed to be the guardian in certain probate cases/estates. He claimed some kind of mental defect during his trial. Most of us thought that defect was GREED. Anyway the guy did very little time in prison, and his wife was able to keep her mega-house rather than having to forfeit it to pay restitution to her husband's victims. Justice in my neck of the woods is laughable.

For those of you not familiar with some of Karl Rove's previous diddling in Alabama politics, I point you to this fine, three page article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200411/green
Karl Rove in a Corner
by Joshua Green

"Karl Rove is at his most formidable when running close races, and his skills would be notable even if he used no extreme methods. But he does use them. His campaign history shows his willingness, when challenged, to employ savage tactics."

There is no doubt in my mind that Karl Rove's hand was in this dirty business with Siegelman.

Also, I would LOVE for someone to look into the dismissal/resignation of the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. I believe the guy's name was David York. Alabama attorneys have most often been appointed to this position, but York's replacement, whose name eludes me at present, graduated from Wheaton College, as best I recall. She also worked in California. Was this person willing to do things that York refused to do for the GOPers?

Posted by ama
June 2, 2007

Posted by jill
June 1, 2007
The associate, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Hmmmmm, big deal, or not?
*****
Recently on APT, Artur Davis, now a Democratic Representative from Alabama and formerly an Assistant US Attorney, was asked about the possibility of monkey business regarding the prosecution of Siegelman. I don't know if Davis was weighing his words carefully, but he said he worked with Leura G. Canary for several years, and he vouched for her integrity.

I would like to know whether Davis might have changed his opinion after having read both articles to which Jay linked.

Posted by ama
June 2, 2007

Another perspective regarding Rove and Alabama politics:
http://www.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2004103020.html

Karl Rove's Traveling Mud-Slinging Show
by Taylor Bright

[...]
Billy Canary, a close friend of Rove's and a former political consultant who now heads the Business Council of Alabama, also worked with Rove on the Pryor campaign.

"Bill Pryor ran a very positive campaign," Canary said.

Pryor won the race by less than 1 percent of the vote and this year Bush appointed him to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Pryor declined to be interviewed for this article.
[...]

Posted by Devil's Advocate
June 2, 2007

More of Rove's filthy fingerprints... Will this rogue ever be stopped? He is a cancer on democracy.

Posted by Marc
June 3, 2007

Unbelievable. There's nothing this crowd won't do.

Posted by TomT
June 3, 2007

Jay, thanks for staying on top of this. As a Swampland reader, I appreciate the effort.

Posted by pepp
June 3, 2007

And the 7,000 votes that showed up all of a sudden supposedly from a glitch in a repub stronghold funny that and then this effort to blackmail him not to check the new vote count. Rove Math which might indicate that genius is not the correct reference?

Posted by pepp
June 3, 2007

And the 7,000 votes that showed up all of a sudden supposedly from a glitch in a repub stronghold funny that and then this effort to blackmail him not to check the new vote count. Rove Math which might indicate that genius is not the correct reference?

Posted by pepp
June 3, 2007

And the 7,000 votes that showed up all of a sudden supposedly from a glitch in a repub stronghold funny that and then this effort to blackmail him not to check the new vote count. Rove Math which might indicate that genius is not the correct reference?

Posted by pepp
June 3, 2007

And the 7,000 votes that showed up all of a sudden supposedly from a glitch in a repub stronghold funny that and then this effort to blackmail him not to check the new vote count. Rove Math which might indicate that genius is not the correct reference?

Posted by bartkid
June 6, 2007

Mr. Carney,
>Is Alabama Part of the U.S. Attorneys Scandal?

Yes.

When will we see a dead-trees edition cover story on this scandal?

Make some calls, dig some dirt, interview some folks.

Josh Marshall has handed this story to you on a silver platter.

Tick, tick, tick.

Posted by Richard Robins
June 8, 2007

Karl Rove graduated as a master of mendacious practices in 1972 when he managed to ruse involvement in Watergate. He has since graduated to is a political attack snake who specializes in eliminating or laming his bosses opposition. He was hired by Bush to perpetrate plans of attack on anyone that opposes Bush or the Republicans who support him.

It was revealed last month that the U.S. Attorneys have been concentrating on reducing the Democrats in all branches of government. The ratio of Democrats convicted have been seven to one.

Hardly anyone in Alabama knew who Bob Riley was until President Bush started making fundraising trips to Al. endorsing him. Bush also gave one of his Secret Service Directors to Gov. Riley and fired Mike Copeage who was doing a superb job as Director of the state police and associated functions. I Personally feel that this needs to be investigated. I believe that this was also Karl Rove’s illegal intrigue.

There’s no doubt in most Alabamians mines that Karl Rove was on the phone call to Bob Riley assuring him that the U.S. Attorneys was going to eliminate the threat of Don Seigleman winning the governors race. The timing of the court case came in the heat of the election which prevented Seigleman from campaigning and prevented him from being available on election day. I bet they all really had a big laugh over this illegal maneuver.

Bush and his whole Texan staff are all habitual liars. Cabinet members have had several dozen lapses of memory during congressional hearings and they have been caught lying many times. Instead of Bush firing them; he tells the media that they handled themselves very well and that he was proud of them? This is telling me that Bush was behind all of it.

The legacy of the Bush and Cheney administration will definitely be one of shame and corruption. It looks like with only months left in office that they would be trying to clean up their reputations, but they act like they still don’t care.

Posted by Rev. Bob Richardson
June 9, 2007

Bush, Cheney, and their Cabinet members have attracted a peculiar brain disorder. It is affecting young and old, male and female, and all ethnic groups. It is believed that it has spread throughout the Whitehouse and has affected U.S. Attorneys and Governor Riley in Alabama. This disorder is similar to Alzheimer's Disease except memory loss only occurs when the subjects are asked questions by the FBI, congressional committees or in witness chairs in a Federal Court rooms. This brain disorder also causes the subject to lie. When caught in a lie they often make weird facial impressions. Instead of getting help and reporting unlawful activities that brings these conditions on, they instead are slowly all resigning or going to prison.

Posted by Kathy Perry
August 2, 2007

Rove is indeed a Cancer on American Politics. Nothing is moral about this guy, and the lives and careers of those he has ruined during the elections of those running against his political playmates, is an outrage! The underhanded dealings, and crimes he's committed since Bush and His Political careers begun are never ending. I never understood how they made it to the White House in the first place!!! The majority of American People are either so stupid.

Which I believe they must be, Especially when all the flags hit the Windows on 9/11, Even my own son said he thought he should go Fight in Iraq. I was flabbergasted. Don't you know we are all being set up on Iraq!!! Don't listen to their Lies!!! Please.....

"American Fries"...give me a break. This in the intelligence that governs our lives and Americans fall for it!!

America needs to boycott the elections, and show their disgust for politicians that send Billions of Taxpayers money to kill and rape in another country while their own people can afford Housing, Medical care, and all the rest!!!

My daughter is having to abort her child because she can't afford or take care of another child.
American Politics turns my stomach!

Posted by lividthedream
October 9, 2007

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=7176844

Siegelman, Scrushy Prosecutor Refutes Rumors

Oct 5, 2007 07:45 PM CDT

Statement from:

Acting United States Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr.
United States Attorney's Office, Middle District of Alabama

Recently, a number of articles, editorials, and postings on blogs have been authored by out-of-state reporters, columnists, and bloggers about the investigation and prosecution of Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy. Though these media reports appear to be part of an orchestrated disinformation campaign about the case, they have generated questions that I want to address once and for all on the record because I believe the public has a right to know the truth.

Leura Canary was not involved, in any way, in any of the decisions about who would and would not be prosecuted. Her recusal was scrupulously honored by me. As the Acting United States Attorney in the case, I made all decisions about the case after consultation with other career prosecutors. Any assertion or insinuation to the contrary is an outright falsehood and a lie.

All viable federal felony offenses discovered during the investigation were appropriately and properly addressed. Political party affiliation played no role in my decision making. Our entire investigative file was turned over to the dozens of extremely able lawyers hired to represent the accused and all information discovered during the investigation was available to them to use in their defense in any way cognizable under the Constitution of the United States. Common sense suggests that if a viable motion for selective prosecution existed, it would have been filed. Simply put, no motion alleging selective prosecution was filed because there were no facts to support it. The comments of a few Monday morning quarterback writers, editors, and bloggers to the contrary are either a deliberate effort to deceive or are occurring because they do not have all the facts available to them. For a variety of reasons, these media members are unwilling to accept the inevitable result of facts being laid bare in the crucible of the federal criminal courtroom.

This case was fully litigated in an open forum where everyone was compelled by law to speak the truth. In this context, Siegelman's and Scrushy's peers convicted them because they are guilty of public corruption offenses.

Any unbiased review of the evidence discovered during this investigation and the manner in which the investigation was conducted will reveal the incredible commitment to the public interest and dedication to duty of the federal and state agents working under my supervision. I am proud of them and the work they did. The taxpayers should be as well.