To be sure, the 65-page indictment that was unsealed yesterday includes plenty of information that appears to be damaging to the state senators, lobbyists, and casino figures who were arrested. As TPM Muckraker reports, the indictment includes snippets of phone conversations that include salty language and talk of highly questionable actions by some parties. It's certainly possible that pro-gambling forces committed criminal acts.
But what about the anti-gambling forces? Did anyone wear a wire around Riley or his associates? Did anyone listen in on their phone conversations, track their phone records, or check their e-mail accounts? To a great extent, this controversy started when Riley took it upon himself to initiate raids on gambling facilities, actions that he did not have authority to take under Alabama law at the time. On whose behalf was Riley acting? Who was pulling his strings?
Did anyone in the Obama DOJ even consider these questions, much less ask them? Apparently not.
While the indictment looks bad for some of the defendants, consider the "all star" prosecution team that has been gathered for this enterprise. It includes Brenda Morris, who is being investigated for her role in the botched Ted Stevens case in Alaska. It includes Louis Franklin and Stephen Feaga, who are infamous for their many questionable actions in the Don Siegelman case in Alabama. And it includes Peter Ainsworth, who was involved in the Paul Minor fiasco in Mississippi.
The U.S. Public Integrity Section (PIN), which has become a cesspool of corruption itself, is at the heart of the Alabama bingo case. Multiple PIN lawyers are under investigation for misconduct in the Stevens case, and one of its members recently committed suicide as the findings were nearing a release. In other words, a corrupt organization has been assigned to investigation corruption in Alabama. That, folks, is how our justice system actually "works."
USA Today already is generating a multi-part series on prosecutorial misconduct in the DOJ. The reporters on that series might want to send a special unit to check out the dubious crowd on the Alabama bingo case.
Want hard evidence that this investigation was a sham? In early May, we reported that former Riley insider Bill Johnson had written a letter to Canary, asking to testify before the grand jury about the governor's anti-gambling activities. Here is part of Johnson's letter, which focused on the early days of the Riley regime:
During the governor's 2002 campaign, I was personally told by the governor's former chief of staff and then campaign staffer that he was in charge of managing million of dollars in campaign contributions from Mississippi Choctaw Indian casino operators. I voluntarily took and passed a polygraph examination on this information.
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