JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WANTS TO TALK WITH IMPRISONED GOV. DON SIEGELMAN-- WHAT ABOUT ROVE?

Since last December Noah, Ken and I have been posting about the travesty of justice around the selective political persecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Today's NY Times reports that the House Judiciary Committee is getting serious about launching a real investigation into the imprisonment of Siegelman. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to bring Siegelman (serving 7 years in a Louisiana prison) to Washington so the committee can question him.

"The chairman has determined it would be appropriate to hear from Mr. Siegelman himself and believes he would have a lot to add to the committee's investigation into selective prosecution," spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said.

Democrats last year began reviewing Siegelman's 2006 corruption conviction as part of a broader investigation into allegations of political meddling at the Justice Department by the Bush administration.

Justice and the federal prosecutors who handled the prosecution have denied any political influence, emphasizing that Siegelman was convicted by a jury. But critics, including about 50 former state attorneys general, have called for a review and said the case raises a number of questions.

The effort gained momentum after a Republican lawyer who had volunteered for Siegelman's re-election opponent-- current Republican Gov. Bob Riley-- said she overheard conversations suggesting that former White House adviser Karl Rove was talking with Justice officials about Siegelman's prosecution.

Siegelman's appeal is slowly wending its way through the legal system. Left in Alabama wants the Maalox concession for Alabama Republicans once the Judiciary Committee starts digging into this.


UPDATE: APPEALS COURT FREES SIEGELMAN PENDING APPEAL

Maybe this is the one that will finally do Rove in "The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the governor had shown he was not a flight risk; that he was not appealing for the purposes of delay and that his conviction 'raised substantial questions of law or fact.'"


UPDATE: WILL ROVE WIND UP IN SIEGELMAN'S LOUISIANA JAIL CELL?

Karl Rove may think he is safe behind the walls of his new million dollar home on Florida's Redneck Riviera, but the arm of the law is long and Justice is bound to prevail. Rove is widely viewed as the mastermind of the plot to target and imprison Democrat Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama. Siegelman has been held in a remote prison in Louisiana where it has been made extremely difficult for him to communicate with the outside world. Yesterday the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta freed him pending his appeal.

It all sounds very medieval but fits right in with the Bush Regime denigration of fundamental American political mores and utter disregard and contempt for a Constitution none of them seem to understand or care about.

“He should not have been manacled and taken off in the night,” said his lawyer, G. Robert Blakey, also a professor at the University of Notre Dame, citing the ex-governor’s immediate imprisonment after his conviction, a point of contention for his supporters.

Republicans have angrily denied the accusations of politics, but Mr. Siegelman has picked up some outside support for his claims of political prosecution. The House Judiciary Committee has held hearings on his case, and 44 former state attorneys general, Democrats and some Republicans, signed a petition last summer urging Congress to look into the conviction.