DOJ Scandal Deepens, Siegelman Judge Exposed

[cal04]

Mark Fuller, an Alabama judge appointed by George Bush as been accused of pension fraud, misuse of his office, perjury, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of the FBI's background check for the Federal Judiciary. These charges were made well before Fuller was assigned to prosecute Don Siegelman, former Democratic governor of Alabama.

The charges were submitted to the DOJ's public integrity section by a respected defense attorney who conducted a routine investigation prior to trying a major case. The charges were sufficiently credible to get judge Fuller removed from that case. However, he was allowed to preside over the Siegelman case. These charges of criminal activity were corroborated by signed documents by public officials involved in exposing the alleged pension fraud by Judge Fuller.

* FishOutofWater's diary :: ::

Scott Horton breaks open another can of Republican worms in Alabama.

I have received a copy of an affidavit (8.7Mb PDF) filed by a Missouri attorney in 2003 which details a number of charges of unethical and criminal conduct against Judge Mark Fuller. The attorney sought Fuller’s removal from a high-profile litigation which related to a prominent Republican who was close to both the current President Bush and his father.

The attorney, Paul Benton Weeks, had been involved as counsel for plaintiffs in a civil action called Murray v. Scott & Sevier, which had originally been filed in Kansas and was later transferred to Montgomery and assigned to Judge Fuller. Weeks, reached by telephone this morning, advised me that he did a routine background check to discover what kind of judge he was up before. "I was astonished by what I found," Weeks said. Immediately after the papers were filed, Weeks said that Fuller was removed as the judge handling the case.

In the affidavit, Weeks accuses Fuller of engaging in criminal conduct both before and after he came on to the bench. The charges include perjury, criminal conspiracy, a criminal attempt to defraud the Retirement System of Alabama, misuse of office as a District Attorney, and an obstruction of his background check by the FBI in connection with the review of his appointment by President Bush to the bench.

What is astonishing about these documents is the signed statements by pension fund officials that accuse Fuller of fraud and perjury. This is not the work of one partisan lawyer.

...not one single board member believed Mark Fuller was not lying. I state under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Signed Gary McAliley

Yet, the DOJ never responded in any way to Weeks' complaint about Fuller.

This means that at the time that Fuller was presiding over the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman, a prosecution brought by Noel Hillman’s Public Integrity Section, he was or should have been the subject of an investigation by the Public Integrity Section. This presents a further appearance of serious impropriety both by Judge Fuller and by the prosecutors handling the case. Our earlier study of Fuller showed that he had three disqualifying conflicts: his undisclosed service on the Executive Committee of the Alabama G.O.P. at the time that it was running campaigns against Siegelman; his suggestion that Siegelman was responsible for "politically motivated" attacks on him in connection with his bookkeeping practices as a district attorney; and his business interests which are tied up almost entirely with U.S. government contracts.

Weeks’s allegations are focused on Fuller’s conduct in connection with "salary spiking" involving two of his employees in the District Attorney’s office. Fuller’s testimony, which Weeks says was contradictory and which changed materially in the course of the matter, was disbelieved both by the RSA and by an Alabama court handling the matter. Weeks calls Fuller’s statements under oath perjured. In an interview today, Weeks noted that Fuller was an "absentee district attorney." "Many of the people I interviewed in the district attorney’s office insisted that Fuller was simply never around. He was constantly out of the state, most often in Colorado, pursuing the business of DOSS Aviation, a company that Fuller controls."

Weeks’s affidavit reflects interviews with Fuller’s successor in the district attorney’s office and with senior officials at the RSA, who confirm the allegations against Fuller. "Judge McAliley then said that he had met with RSA officials and that every member on the RSA board believed Mark Fuller had lied and that Fuller had lied under oath."

Weeks notes that after the affidavit was transmitted to the Justice Department, no individual from Noel Hillman’s group ever contacted him to follow up on any of the allegations or to request any of the documentation that was cited in the affidavit.

Material used with permission from Scott Horton.

The PDF submitted by Weeks is very interesting because it not only ties to the Siegelman case but brings in another huge fraud case that ties to a friend of the Bush family.

To be continued.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/16/213656/09



2003 Affidavit Raises Serious Questions About Siegelman Judge
I have received a copy of an affidavit (8.7Mb PDF) filed by a Missouri attorney in 2003 which details a number of charges of unethical and criminal conduct against Judge Mark Fuller. The attorney sought Fuller’s removal from a high-profile litigation which related to a prominent Republican who was close to both the current President Bush and his father.
http://harpers.org/subjects/NoComment

[Demeter]

1. The Jig Is Up, Karl Rove!

That boy's gonna do time! Finally!

[Bitwit1234]

2. But the Attorney General should have initiated the investigation

AND rove can say he didn't have anything to do with the decision. But we know he influenced the trial and charges against Seigleman. What I would like is for a thorough investigation on who burned Jill Simpson's house to the ground and tried to run her off the road.

[bleever]

3. Dry rot is excellent at undermining structures.

But what it leaves to be taken over leaves much to be desired.

[me b zola]

4. k&r

[flyarm]

5. k&r this to the top!! thx!! eom

[EFerrari]

6. They took the governor out of the courtroom in SHACKLES.

I'm so glad these felons are being exposed! K&R

[Froward69]

23. not only that but created a photo

opp to get the govs picture with those shackles from every direction...

[Richard Steele]

7. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? recommended

[robinlynne]

8. nice! come on now congress, take them down! all of them.

[JMDEM]

9. Didn't you notice awhile back...

The "Justice Department" has been renamed the "Just Us" Department.

The fraud and corruption is mind-blowing. It appears we are no longer a nation of laws.

[Swamp Rat]

10. k&r

Stay out of small planes Mr. Weeks. :scared:

:kick:

[Blackhatjack]

11. OK where is the NYTimes on this one? This corrupt cabal is crumbling...watch out Karl!

A politically involved judge with a grudge against a defendant is allowed to preside over his trial?

Unbelievable if there was such a thing as ethics applied to this judge.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Republicans surely hate those activist judges. They've got such high standards, don't they?

District Judge Mark Fuller

Thanks for the latest on this slime, cal04. Sure wish we could see the end from here!

[DemoTex]

20. The quintessential GOP phenotype ..

From the pursed, thin lips to the beady, Aryan eyes this slime-ball organism reeks of the right-wing, Rovian GOP.

[Froward69]

24. A judge is only activist

if he rules with the constitution. or against the Gop. otherwise he/she is honorable.:eyes: :puke: :cry:

[Cha]

44. My my my..what's that

guy's agenda?

[razors edge]

46. A personal one.

Get all I can from others at all costs and bail.

Republican agendas 101, taught at finer back room deals near you.

[creeksneakers2]

13. Kicked! n/t

[malaise]

14. Is it time to impeach these criminals yet?

Good fugging grief.

[DemoTex]

15. More on Judge Fuller's Doss Aviation:

Fuller was also involved as a majority owner in companies that bid on defense contracts, before he became a judge. But records unearthed by Ms. Simpson show he was still a majority shareholder of a company that did business with the FBI — while the Siegelman-Scrushy trial was underway. In fact, during the trial one of the companies in which he is a majority shareholder, Doss Aviation, received a $178-million contract from the federal government to train Saudi and Iranian pilots. Also, Fuller fails to report his majority ownership of a related company, Aureus International, in his mandatory judicial financial disclosure forms, which is an apparent violation of the US judicial code of conduct.

If you were investigated by the FBI and put on trial in federal court, she asks, would you feel comfortable knowing the judge owned a business that was reliant on the FBI and beholden to the federal government for contracts worth upwards of $258 million? As attorney general over the Department of Justice and the FBI, Gonzales was responsible for the paychecks for prosecutors and FBI agents. He also had to sign off on all large federal contracts going through the department.

http://www.populist.com/07.17.wilson.html

K&R

:kick:

[nashville_brook]

37. whoa.

:kick: indeed

[formercia]

16. Just the kind of Judge the boys love.

co-optable to the extreme and willing to go the extra mile for a piece of the pie.

[DemoTex]

17. Bu$h-appointed judge Mark Fuller blocked RSA from going after Enron ..

I just found this gem written by RSA (Retirement System of Alabama) CEO David Bronner: “Sarcasm: Justice in Bama,” RSA's August 2007 Advisor. In addition to a salary-spiking case (Judge Fuller did the spiking for a buddy), meant to defraud the RSA (but nixed by a state judge in Montgomery), Judge Fuller refused to grant the RSA the ability sue Bu$h buddy Ken Lay's Enron in Alabama state court.

Bronner wrote:

I do not like U.S. District Judge Fuller nor does he like me. The RSA had to go through the entire state court system to prevent Judge Fuller’s buddy from ripping off the RSA. Shortly thereafter, Judge Fuller tried to sandbag the RSA by preventing our claim (by doing nothing) against the ultimate crook–Enron! Fortunately, the RSA prevailed on both issues.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000701

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Sounds like a man who can be easily bought.

[Baby Snooks]

19. And what will they do about it?

And what will they do about it? Absolutely nothing. Except shoot the bird at the Constitution and the American people. Again.

[Truth2Tell]

33. Keep hope alive. They are feeling the heat.

Props to Harpers on this story, and quite a few folks on the Internets. This will not die, as much as they wish it would. Of all the nasty GOP/Rove business of the last 7 years, this one could be the undoing. Fingers crossed.

[Froward69]

21. Gov. Siegelman

Was Flat out Railroaded. this Case is one of the most egregious I have ever seen. almost makes me want to buy a compound and barricade my self in it.

[Supersedeas]

22. right under Jeff Session's nose--surely he knew nothing-nadda about it

[suffragette]

25. K&R

[L. Coyote]

26. K & R & X-Post. This opens a new chapter in the DoJ investigation with awesome timing

just as the new AG hearing begins at this hour. Leahy is speaking now of the USA purge, denigrating Bush's "mischaracterizing the facts."

Cross post and more on Scott Horton's investiation of Siegelman's case here:
Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: TIME COVER STORY to be Political Prosecutions in Alabama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1982675

with links to the previous DU compilation threads.

See also: Judge Fuller: A Siegelman Grudge Match?
BY Scott Horton - Aug 2, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000701

We’re getting to know Judge Mark Everett Fuller, the judge in the Don Siegelman case. In the first two installments <1> <2>, we discussed how Fuller came to be selected as a judge, his long, in-the-trenches relationship with the Alabama G.O.P. (serving on its Executive Committee), and his special relationship with his political mentor, Representative Terry Everett. Today we will explore the dispute that arose just as Fuller was moving to the federal bench.

Fuller’s tenure as District Attorney for Alabama’s 12th Judicial Circuit lasted from 1997, when he was appointed by Republican Governor Fob James, through 2002, when, based on recommendations from Alabama Republican Senators Richard Shelby and Jefferson Sessions, he was nominated by President George W. Bush for a federal judgeship in the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. Fuller was confirmed in November 2002.

See also: http://www.harpers.org/subjects/DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry
(Harpers unavailable on the web just now?)

[loudsue]

28. Does Leahy have this information? Will he bring it out in the hearing?

I hope they crucify ALL of bush's candidates. We already know the whole lot of them are as corrupt as hell.

[tom_paine]

27. What good does exposing it all if we don't free Seigelman and prosecute the Bushies?

For the millionth time I ask Why do these investigations, like Gonzales's in which the perjury was so repeated and extreme and captured on vidoetape and contradicted by his own aides and the DIRECTOR OF THE FBI, why do they NEVER lead to concrete legal action nor prosecution?!?

It's always the same. They expose but they do nothing of substance to remedy the situation.

This must have been what it felt like to witness the Nazis growing power at least "congressionally" fom 1929-1932 (in may ways we are alrady living in 1937)...without the violence and daily fear of personal danger (thank God for small favors, eh? Who says people don't make progress).

Our government is ruled by force of will and little else these days. The show they put on for our benefit is the lamest Reality Show ever constructed for an addled, apathetic, and slavish people.

[L. Coyote]

29. The same questions could be applied to Watergate.

But, I for one am pleased that such questions did not put a stop to the process then.

[tom_paine]

30. You think Watergate is analogous to this?

I suppose a toy kayak is equivalent ot an aircraft carrier, then.

They are both boats, after all.

To put the tepid and minimal crimes which Nixon committed, only tepid and minimal when comapred with the Mafia-level of criminality we have seen from the Bushies, practiced openly and shamelessly, in the same category or class even as the Crimes of BushCheney is :crazy:

And if you think I am arguing for a cessation of investigations and not an escalation of investigations (not to mention prosecutions on cases like Gonzales, where the evidence is ironclad...IRONCLAD), then what else can I say but :silly: ?

My God, STOP the process? Are you mad? NO ONE is arguing for that and you have constructed a most shameful Straw Man (sorry if this offends, but that's how I see it, that's such a dishonest stretch to imply that is what I was arguing).

[L. Coyote]

31. I refer primarily to the timeline

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/chronology.htm

It has been a long time since those days, and many no longer recall how that process took a long time. It is not easy to turn the herd!

[tom_paine]

35. I hope you are correct, L Coyote, but I believe the situations are of such different

magnitude (and remember, the watergate investigators never said "impeachment is off the table" neither did they quail from filing charges when something like Gonzales' multiple felony perjuries fell into their laps) that we cannot apply much from one to the other sitautions.

Kayak and aircraft carrier.

But consider this, that today there is no herd to turn. Nancy Pelosi speaks of us in disdainful terms which are almost as vitriolic as the Bushies do (did you read of her "they should be arrested for vagrancy but they have Impeach Bush on their chests so they are protected by the 1st Amendment? if not, you should find it and read those comments).

I would estimate that the American People may have about 30 or 40 in House and Senate who actually even try to represent the American People anymore, and one of those is Ron Paul, for God's sakes!

As I said, nothing would please me more than to have been overworked about what turned out to be nothing.

[L. Coyote]

52. Agreed, the magnitude is far greater. However, the system is the same old, same old.

I am quite sure the Rs are totally "purchased" and beholding, and by a magnitude of difference since Nixon's era. Money rules politics like never before.

Also, Frank Church discovered what being a "political target" means and they all know that lesson! The weakening of the Rs may be liberating in this regard. I don't think they can just target and knock out like before.

[DeeDeeNY]

38. You are absolutely and totally correct

I am still trying to figure out why there were no consequences when Harriet Miers and Condi ignored subpoenas.

[Botany]

32. So an elected Governor of Alabama is in prison because the Rove/bush ....

.... junata wanted to shut him up about stolen elections?

And the Judge who sent him to prison stopped the investigation into Enron
and is a right wing hack?

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000805

Honest to God we need to bring these bastards to justice.

[tblue37]

34. This is a man who needs to "spend more time with his family." n/t

[Blackhatjack]

41. This is a man who needs to 'spend more time with his CELLMATE.' n/t

[flashl]

36. K&R n/t

[annabanana]

39. k&r. . . n/t

[sonias]

40. K&R

Keep it coming.

Sonia

[Cha]

42. Is a requisite for being appointed by

bush..that you are on the make and take? Do they fill out resumes and nobody gets considered unless they plan to steal, cheat, and lie their way to the top of the elephant dung heap?

[cal04]

43. House Judiciary Sets Date for Siegelman Hearing

A House Judiciary panel plans to hold a hearing next Tuesday looking at allegations of politically-motivated prosecutions, including the case of former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) and likely the suspicious cases against a Wisconsin bureaucrat that an appeals court called "beyond thin," and against a Democratic coroner in Pennsylvania.

Siegelman's lawyers have long contended that the case stemmed from a political vendetta against the Democratic governor in a Republican-dominated state. Documents recently obtained by Time give traction to this claim, showing that investigators ignored allegations from a state lobbyist of wrongdoing by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and former state Attorney General William Pryor, but still initiated an investigation into Siegelman.

The Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson, who first triggered the national coverage of the Siegelman case with her affidavit implicating Karl Rove in the prosecution, spoke with judiciary committee investigators earlier this month. According to the transcript, Simpson described a second instance that fingers Rove in the Siegelman prosecution. There is no word yet if she will testify at next week's hearing.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004483.php

[Cha]

45. I want Don Siegelman outta prison

on the road to healing from this traumatic, political experience!

http://www.archives.state.al.us/lg_seigl.html

[L. Coyote]

48. TPM Posts on Siegelman

Posts on “Don Siegelman”
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/cats/don_siegelman/

Lots of good stories. Scott Horton and Josh Marshall have cooperated on this issue.

[robinlynne]

47. This article is so good!

[L. Coyote]

49. DOJ Scandal Also Widens. Nacchio and Qwest: Another Political Prosecution?

FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2051298

The political odor of this legal case has never been proper.
The issue first arose on DU with the USA firings discussion.
* Justice Weighed Firing 1 in 4 - 26 Prosecutors Were Listed As Candidates
* http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2848874

Now, it's in mainstream press and serious legal blogs.

=====================
Qwest: Another Political Prosecution?
BY Scott Horton - Oct 14, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001415

Last week, a career federal prosecutor friend told me, “Most of us have come to agree that there’s a real problem with political prosecutions on Bush’s watch, and that needs to be addressed, but you need to remind your readers that this is something truly exceptional and that the great mass of cases involve the normal functioning of the law enforcement system, with career professionals who are detached from political considerations.” For the record, I believe that’s true. I’m not sure how widespread the phenomenon of political prosecution is. I believe that it is no longer a question of “whether” such prosecutions have been brought—that’s now very well established. How widespread is this phenomenon? That’s an important question and the answers are unclear.

And this weekend more information has surfaced which would show the practice to be far more common that I first suspected. .............

[reinhardt]

51. The whitehouse started pretending to lose emails starting with Enron's "Project Tanya" n/t

[reinhardt]

50. It was all about CON (Certificate Of Need)

http://www.enterprisecorruption.com/?page_id=14

http://www.enterprisecorruption.com/?page_id=24