Recent news reports indicate that Alice Martin of the Northern District of Alabama is one of the U.S. attorneys being investigated by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
Martin is drawing scrutiny for her handling of the first Don Siegelman prosecution. That Birmingham case involved allegations of health-care fraud and was tossed out quickly by a federal judge. Siegelman later was convicted, along with HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, on bribery and mail-fraud charges in the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery.
The Alabama blog Legal Schnauzer is in the process of showing that any investigation of Alice Martin needs to go beyond the Siegelman case. While powerful evidence suggests that Martin went after Siegelman (a Democrat) for political reasons, equally powerful evidence suggests that Martin also practices a second version of selective prosecution--intentionally turning a blind eye to wrongdoing by "loyal Bushie" Republicans.
First, Legal Schnauzer provides some background, showing how Martin was quick to go after HealthSouth executives in a high-profile accounting fraud case but neglected to go after another financially strapped Alabama company. Of course this second company, Martin Industries, had a vice president named Louis Martin, who just happens to be married to none other than Alice Martin. Think that had anything to do with Alice Martin's decision not to look into possible wrongdoing at Martin Industries?
Next, Legal Schnauzer shows that the Bush Justice Department has a longstanding habit of exhibiting official indifference to certain types of crimes--those that might make favored constituents look bad.
Finally, we begin to learn exactly how Martin protects corrupt Republican judges in Alabama state courts, along with an unethical attorney who has family ties to Karl Rove and the Bush White House.
What is Martin's trick? She sends allegations of wrongdoing by Republicans to the wrong investigative agency--an agency that has no jurisdiction to investigate the crimes in question--and then lies to the citizen complainant about it.
Legal Schnauzer has more posts coming, revealing a paper trail that shows exactly how a corrupt Bushie operates in Alabama.
