It
is, of course, difficult for outsiders to learn the full facts,
especially when official proceedings are compromised or secret. The
latter is the case currently involving Fuller's divorce proceedings.
Alabama Circuit Judge Anita L. Kelly sealed them at Fuller's request
over the objection of his wife. Our Justice Integrity Project has sought -- so far unsuccessfully -- to require at least a hearing in view of Alabama
and United States law holding that court proceedings are presumed to be
public. Also, we have attempted without success to obtain comment from
Fuller, just as we did unsuccessfully sought it previously from Rove.
The Fuller proceedings raise particular public interest concerns for several reasons, including the judge's notoriety in the Siegelman case and the never-resolved claims that he should have been impeached and prosecuted for attempted fraud against Alabama's pension system.
More recently, Fuller's wife claims that he has been involved in adultery with a woman identified by a Montgomery newspaper editor as a married court clerk he supervised. Fuller's wife suggested also in papers seeking access to pharmaceutical records that he may have been involved in the excessive or otherwise improper use of drugs.
Most importantly from a taxpayer perspective, the divorce court's unwarranted secrecy clamp-down deprives the public of learning more about the division of what Doss Aviation reported last year as billions of dollars in military contracts coming to the company soon.
Conveniently enough for secrecy enthusiasts, a hedge fund led by former 9/11 Committee Member John F. Lehman, a former Reagan Secretary of the Navy, bought Doss last December in advance of the Fuller divorce action for a sum that was kept confidential.
In sum, it's no secret that those running government both federally and locally like to keep secrets from the public. But one thing is for sure: Rove was lying on Fox News last week about whether Simpson had been working with Bauer.
Oddly enough, however, Rove's nationally televised screed might prompt Bauer to urge his client Obama to pay attention, at long last, to one of the greatest scandals in recent American history.
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