The Alabama newspaper publisher Martin says he distributed his column May 16 to his syndicate of 25 newspapers. But Google searches more than a day later indicate only slight pick-up of the story aside from a few web and social media sites.
Therefore, if the public is going to know about this new scandal regarding Fuller it needs to be via the independent electronic media, as so often in the past in the Siegelman case.
OpEd News readers are well-informed on the background of the case, which I have summarized in the lead-story on my Justice Integrity Project website.
Briefly, Siegelman is free on bond awaiting results of his last-ditch Supreme Court appeal this spring. The Obama administration has closed ranks with the Bush administration to oppose all appeals and investigations.
Bigger Stakes Than Siegelman's Fate
The Siegelman case has attracted the most attention to Fuller's courtroom of all his cases. But from the first, our Project and others have shown that the case was just one part of a pattern involving many others within the justice system.
My coverage for OpEd News is now reaching its third anniversary. And from the start, I (and others here) have chronicled Fuller's abuses of his vast powers in a range of cases that include major environmental, employment and election disputes as well as criminal cases.
In 2003, most dramatically, Missouri attorney Paul B. Weeks, III filed with Fuller a remarkable 180-page brief to show that Fuller should recuse himself from a major civil case litigated by Weeks, and then be impeached for corruption in trying to bilk Alabama's pension system of $330,000 when Fuller was a state prosecutor before his judicial confirmation in 2002.
In the background, was the discovery by Weeks that one of Fuller's prosecution office employees was, in effect, blackmailing him to get extra retirement money because of Fuller's secret Doss work and his purported affair with a prosecution-office staffer.
The Paul Weeks documents are missing from the federal court files controlled by the Montgomery court clerk's office. But we have preserved the filing in two sections, here and here.
A development not yet widely reported is that Doss Aviation was sold late last year to a private equity firm controlled by a former Navy Secretary. Doss trains Air Force pilots and refuels Air Force planes, among other tasks. Fuller was once listed as 43.75% owner, with share later reportedly reduced to 32% before the company stopped answering questions while boasting of billions in future contracts. The sale would keep the firm's secrets intact. Fuller's wife is seeking an accounting of family assets.
Fuller has asked that the court file be sealed. If granted that would be a highly unusual development in a divorce case and underscore how judges and prosecutors protect each other.
New Questions
This week's developments should prompt many new questions, including to authorities at the Senate and Justice Department. I invite suggestions and help from other bloggers in your own postings.
One of my next steps will be to revisit this matter with the office of one of the leaders of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Two years ago, a spokesperson told me there was nothing unusual about the committee's review of Fuller.
Of course not. That's because the U.S. Senate, which approved Fuller with no mention of Doss, is part of the problem.
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