Later, I played a small role in the Crossroads saga. Simpson had often described to me the complex deal-making and political strategies of top Republican politicians and lobbyists, such as Rove and Stewart Hall, a well-connected former aide to Alabama U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, the state's senior Republican. In researching Hall's career later, I saw a news report that he had left the lobbying/public relations giant Ogilvy to found Crossroads, a start-up. I mentioned this to Simpson but did not see enough news simply in that to merit a Justice Integrity Project news report.
Simpson, suspecting that Rove might be heavily involved, then encouraged political activists to look for "Crossroads" on state incorporation papers across the nation. The group's discovery of relevant documents prompted the activists to create a nationwide campaign claiming that Crossroads was raising campaign funds in a way that would hurt the public in U.S. elections. A vast struggle has ensued since occurred between web-based activists on the right and left. Both sides claimed serious legal violations, including threats, invasion of privacy and sub rosa attacks on civic institutions.
High Stakes
With that introduction, let's examine what happened this week: Rove falsely claimed that Simpson has refused ever to swear to her assertions regarding the Siegelman case. But Simpson, an Alabama lawyer who describes in other contexts a half-century family history of political work with Alabama's Wallace family and with the Bush family, clearly swore out her allegations in 2007 in at least two ways.
On Fox this week, Rove also falsely claimed that Bauer arranged Simpson's appearance on a CBS 60 Minutes expose in 2008 that fostered national protests of the Bush administration's prosecution of Siegelman on corruption charges. Additionally, Rove claimed that Simpson has "disappeared."
"There are at least 50 lies in this broadcast by Karl Rove," commented Duncan, Simpson's main attorney during the height of her visibility as a Republican whistle-blower in 2007 and 2008. "He [Rove] seems obsessed with Jill Simpson and Gov. Siegelman," Duncan continued in an email sent to the Pam Miles list-serve reaching some 30,000 recipients of a Don Siegelman support group around the nation. "I don't recall Bob Bauer being anywhere around during those days."
Van Susteren's original question to Rove was whether Crossroads GPS deserves its tax-exempt status. Bauer, among others, has challenged that status by saying that Rove's fund-raising organization does not undertake "social welfare" work within the meaning of the IRS provisions enabling donors to obtain tax write-offs. Crossroads has boasted of an ability to raise $300 million for GOP candidates this year.
Rove, sitting in a comfortably appointed office, said the Crossroads organization he co-founded meets all relevant criteria to retain tax-exempt status because it functions much like liberal groups with that status. He then pivoted to a tirade against Simpson and Bauer. His rant was peculiar because because it had no obvious relation to the interviewer's questions.
Rove's remarks also contained numerous questionable implications. Wilson, editor/publisher of the Locust Fork News-Journal in Alabama, explores Rove's claims in a column excerpted here:
There is no way this right-wing Republican political organization, American Crossroads, which is spending millions of dollars to try to defeat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, is a "social welfare organization" just because they mention the deficit on their Website. Karl Rove worked for George W. Bush, the president who ran up the deficit. He is responsible for it, not this president. The lies on Fox News are so blatant that even legal host Greta Van Susteren seemed shocked that Rove would even bring up the Siegelman case -- when the question was about a lawsuit filed to try to get him to disclose the names of his donors, since the Supreme Court recently ruled that political organizations must disclose their donors.
You can fool some of the people some of the time. How many times will Americans allow themselves to be fooled by this unethical political animal?
For
your information Karl, Jill Simpson is still an attorney in Rainsville,
Alabama working on a graduate degree and getting on with her life after
you libeled and slandered her to try to save your own butt. It didn't
work....I just talked to Jill Simpson, who is in Arizona training in
civil disobedience...."Mr. Bauer is not my lawyer. I've never met him,"
Ms. Simpson said. "It's just another lie Karl Rove is telling on me. He
lied on me. He lied on Don Siegelman. And now he's lying on President
Obama."
"I told the truth," Ms. Simpson said. "I've now moved on with my life."
At every stage of the prosecution, the Obama Administration led by Attorney General Eric Holder has supported the prosecution of Siegelman, Alabama's most popular Democrat for years before Republicans targeted him. The presumed scandal of Siegelman's conduct and conviction has helped turn Alabama into a solid Republican bastion on all levels.
His appeals and family finances are apparently exhausted after millions of dollars in legal expenses following his 13 years under investigation. The probe has cost taxpayers at least $25 million by my estimate for a case that 113 former state attorneys general recently described as unmerited.
Siegelman is scheduled Aug. 3 to face resentencing by U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller of Montgomery. The judge was a state prosecutor, CEO of Doss Aviation Inc. and a longtime Republican activist before his elevation in 2002 to the federal bench following claims he was trying to bilk his state's pension fund out of $330,000, as I reported for the Huffington Post in 2009 in, Siegelman Deserves New Trial Because of Judge's "Grudge', Evidence Shows,
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
2
