On February 24, 2008, the only notable exception at the
national level occurred. CBS "60 Minutes" ran a story about Siegelman's
dubious corruption conviction. Based on the odious smell factor and new
evidence, 75 former and current state adjutant generals, Republicans and
Democrats alike, requested the case be reviewed and called for an investigation
of potential prosecutorial misconduct. The new evidence was a statement
made to CBS by Nick Bailey, whose testimony led to the convictions of Siegelman
and Richard Scrushy.
Bailey stated that prosecutors met with him some 70 times
and had him repeatedly write out his proposed testimony to "get his story
straight." Since the defense was never informed of nor provided copies of
any written testimony, I could see where Siegelman's team would want a special
prosecutor to review potential prosecutorial misconduct.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin, who supposedly led
the prosecution team, stated that Bailey's claim was "absolutely not
true." This begs the question, which of Bailey's comments were not true,
his claims of producing written testimony or his overall testimony?
Hardly a Mob
Leading off the batting order of Republican protagonists is
Leura Garrett Canary, then U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of
Alabama. No Johnny-Come-Lately to the political arena, she is the
daughter of the late Senator Eugene Garrett and granddaughter of the late
Senator Will Garrett. Before joining the Department of Justice she served
as a civil litigator in the Alabama Attorney General's Office. She was
nominated in 2001 by President Bush as U.S. Attorney General for the Middle
Alabama District.
There is no person more central to suggestions of political
collusion in the Siegelman case than Leura Canary. Canary initiated the
Siegelman investigation at the request of her former boss, Alabama Attorney
General William Pryor, after efforts to secure any state convictions
failed. She worked for Pryor from 1999 to 2001.
Canary's husband is William "Bill" Canary. His history
and political associations give any independent investigator a queasy feeling
as to the odious political connections to the Siegelman trial. Initially,
he was publicly referred to only as Bill Canary, a Republican activist.
It would be later learned that he was Alabama's top GOP political consultant
and a personal friend of Karl Rove. During the investigation timeframe,
Bill Canary was a paid consultant for both Attorney General Pryor and
Republican Lieutenant Governor Steve Windom.
In May 2002, almost a year
into the case and months after Siegelman's attorney complained to the Justice
Department, Leura Canary p ublicly recused herself (or
did she?) and purportedly turned the prosecution over to her assistant, Middle
District U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin. As soon as her recusal was
announced, Bill Canary began publicly working for Republican Bob Riley's
successful 2002 gubernatorial campaign against Siegelman. No one could
have benefited more from their wife's work.
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