The story of Don Siegelman and the Bush Justice Department's agenda to take him down

I saw this story yesterday through The Carpetbagger Report, and TPM, and I'm fascinated by the case. The CBS News program 60 minutes aired an incredible story of Alabama governor Don Siegelman, and the Bush Justice Department's intent desire to constantly investigate Don Siegelman, and take him down, because he is a Democrat. Siegelman was ultimately indicted and convicted of bribery, and is currently serving a seven year prison sentence. But what the 60 Minutes news story has uncovered is that the indictment and conviction of Siegelman may have been pursued because of politics. What is more, the politics of this Siegelman case is linking back to the Bush administration, and Karl Rove. Here is the video of the 60 Minutes news story:



And here is the transcript of the 60 Minutes story.

The story is just incredible here. We've got a Republican lawyer Jill Simpson who was recruited by President Bush's senior adviser Karl Rove to take pictures of Siegelman in uncompromising sexual positions. There is a Republican consultant's wife who used her power as a federal prosecutor, appointed by President Bush, to investigate Siegelman. The prosecution's star witness in the bribery case against Siegelman was a crook, who was extorting money from Alabama businesses, when he cut a deal with prosecutors to turn against Siegelman. The star witness couldn't remember the details of conversations with Siegelman regarding the meeting in which the bribe took place, causing prosecutors to force this witness to write down his testimony again and again in order to get his story straight. And those notes were never turned over to Siegelman's defense. This case is scary here because it really shows just how a Rove-politicized Justice Department operates. It is not about putting away crooked politicians, but rather using the incredible power of the Justice Department to remove your political opponents.

And there is even more coming out of this story. According to MSNBC News, a CBS affiliate station, WHNT-TV Channel 19, of Huntsville, went black for several moments, just before the 60 Minutes airing of the Siegelman segment on Sunday. MSNBC reports "The screen was dark for a few moments before the station flashed a message blaming a technical glitch for the problem." According to Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine, CBS News in New York reported that "There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters." Horton reports that WHNT-TV is owned by the Bass family, which has contributed heavily to the Republican Party. According to Raw Story:

WHNT in Huntsville Alabama was purchased by Oak Hill Capital Partners from the New York Times Company early last year. Oak Hill is owned by the Bass brothers, Bush fundraisers at the "Pioneer" level – raising over $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaigns in both 2000 and 2004. Lee Bass is perhaps the best known member of the Bass family for his role in George W. Bush’s failed energy venture called Spectrum 7 and later for his bailing out of Harken Energy.

This story is really smelling like raw sewage here.