|
March 14, 2008
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I apologize for the delay in my response and I would like to take this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. On October 26, 2005, Mr. Siegelman was indicted on charges of bribery and mail fraud. Mr. Siegelman was accused of trading government favors for campaign donations. He was ultimately found guilty by a federal jury and sentenced to seven years in prison. Some members of Congress have expressed concern that the charges against Mr. Siegelman had political motivations, questioning the fairness of his prosecution. On July 17, 2007, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and other Committee members sent a letter to Attorney General Gonzales requesting documents and information about Mr. Siegelman's case. These documents were not produced by the Department of Justice. In September 2007, the House Judiciary Committee initiated an investigation into possible political motivations behind Mr. Siegelman's prosecution. Jill Simpson, an attorney who worked on several Republican campaigns in Alabama, testified that former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush, Karl Rove, had pushed DOJ to bring these corruption charges against Mr. Siegelman. On February 26, 2007, the CBS program "60 Minutes" aired a report on the Siegelman case. A local Huntsville, Alabama station blacked out for 12 minutes during the airing of this segment. This interruption raised suspicions and concerns among certain viewers. The station subsequently reported that the break was due to equipment failure, stating that a similar reception error had occurred the previous day during a basketball game. Should this issue come before the Senate, you can be sure I will keep your views in mind. Thank you again for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Herb Kohl U.S. Senator
Have you contacted your elected representatives yet? I believe both Kohl, and Feingold sit on the Senate Judiciary committee which would look into abuse of power out of Gonzales' office.
|