In order to understand how selective against Democrats the prosecutions by Obama’s “Justice” Department have been, one must know the background of a few cases that were begun under George W. Bush. This is especially so with regard to the case of a current federal prisoner, the former Democratic Governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman:
On 1 June 2007, Adam Zagorin of TIME, headlined “Rove Named in Alabama Controversy,” and he reported that,
“A longtime Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove ‘had spoken with the Department of Justice’ about ‘pursuing’ [Alabama’s departing Democratic Governor, Don] Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama’s U.S. attorneys. The allegation was made by Dana Jill Simpson, a lifelong Republican and lawyer who practices in Alabama. She made the charges in a May 21 affidavit, obtained by TIME, in which she describes a conference call on November 18, 2002, which involved a group of senior aides to Bob Riley, who had just narrowly defeated Siegelman in a bitterly contested election for governor. Though Republican Riley, a former Congressman, initially found himself behind by several thousand votes, he had pulled ahead at the last minute when disputed ballots were tallied in his favor. After the abrupt vote turnaround, Siegelman sought a recount. The Simpson affidavit says the conference call focused on how the Riley campaign could get Siegelman to withdraw his challenge. According to Simpson’s statement, William Canary, a senior G.O.P. political operative and Riley adviser who was on the conference call, said ‘not to worry about Siegelman’ because ‘his ‘girls’ would take care of’ the governor. Canary then made clear that ‘his girls’ was a reference to his wife, Leura Canary, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.”
The Simpson affidavit also asserted that in this conference call, “Canary said ‘not to worry — that he had already gotten it worked out with Karl’” Rove, to get U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to okay this operation by these two U.S. Attorneys. However, in order to avoid the obvious appearance of impropriety if Canary’s wife were to prosecute Bill Canary’s opponent, she recused herself from the case, and Louis V. Franklin Sr. was appointed by the Bush Administration to carry out the prosecution of Siegelman. The judge in Siegelman’s trial was Republican Mark Fuller, a personal friend of Bob Riley.
