by Glynn Wilson

The House Judiciary Committee released a transcript today containing explosive new testimony showing a clear-cut case of White House involvement in using the federal courts to manipulate the electoral system of the United States.

North Alabama attorney and GOP whistleblower Jill Simpson's testimony expands on her sworn affidavit from May of this year. In the affidavit and in her statements to Congress, she documents the involvement of White House and Bush Justice Department officials in scheming to prosecute former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman to keep him from winning future elections.

At the heart of this scheme lies Alabama Governor Bob Riley's son Rob Riley, who told her in several conversations about a plan to recruit a Republican federal judge to handle the case against Siegelman.

"Rob told me that Mark Fuller was still a government contractor in 2005 and a United States federal judge, which I found unusual," Ms. Simpson says, so she began to conduct her own research on the judge and concluded that he had a conflict of interest and should not have sat in judgment in the case.

The Eleventh U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta has agreed to consider that issue on appeal. But the three-judge panel assigned the case has not yet issued a ruling on that issue.

Fuller was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2002 at the urging of Rep. Terry Everett, a Republican from Enterprise, a city that is at the heart of defense-related industries in Alabama. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a right-wing Republican from Mobile, was also in on the appointment.

Ms. Simpson says in one of her conversations with Riley during the winter of 2005 he made a statement that "Fuller would hang Don Siegelman." She asked him how he knew that, and he told her, in addition to being a fellow machine fraternity member at the University of Alabama and associated with Republican politicians such as Everett, that "Fuller had been on the Executive Republican Committee" of Alabama.

"Rob said that they had come up with an idea to prosecute Don with Richard Scrushy," she testified. "He basically said that they had come up with an idea to re-indict Don and that they were going to include Richard Scrushy, and they had figured out a way to do it."

"Rob implied that Don Siegelman had gotten money illegally from Richard Scrushy," she says. "That's what his tale was."

That involved the allegations that Scrushy had written two $250,000 checks to pay off the debt on Siegelman's campaign to try and pass a lottery for education in the state, a campaign that was stymied by out-of-state gambling interests tied to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Christian Coalition and other politically conservative forces.

Rob Riley did not return a phone call seeking comment, but he has denied Ms. Simpson's version of events to a Birmingham newspaper and the Associated Press of Alabama.

Ms. Simpson goes into great detail on how she tried to avoid getting directly involved in the investigation. She wanted to avoid making sworn charges against a federal judge. She tried to talk to one of Siegelman's lawyers to pass along what she knew, but he never called her back. So she talked to Alabama Bar Association attorneys, who urged her that she had an ethical and moral duty to report what she knew to Scrushy's lawyers, which she did, in writing.

But as the case proceeded in Montgomery and Siegelman's and Scrushy's attorneys were unable to win the judge's recusal due to his conflict of interest, she says she ultimately decided to write and sign the affidavit, because, "I thought it was the right thing to do."

"I did not think that what he was doing was right," she says. "Being a federal judge and being in a closely held corporation…"

She was also troubled when the judge sealed the files on the motion for him to recuse himself, then spoke in public about it but placed a gag order on the defense lawyers - yet the prosecution team also talked to the press in public about the case.

"He sealed the evidence, and I read the papers where he got out and spoke, but had them sealed where they couldn't speak, and the prosecutor spoke," she says. "And I just thought that this is not right, and I went ahead and I did the affidavit on the phone call."

In the phone call on Nov. 18, 2002, the same day Siegelman conceded that election in the closest contest for governor in state history, Ms. Simpson says former Alabama Supreme Court justice Terry Butts made claims that he could get Siegelman to concede the election.

Mr. Butts denies any recollection of the phone call.

The reason Ms. Simpson was in on the conference call was that she had been doing political dirty tricks as a volunteer for the Riley campaign. She had gone to a rally of the Ku Klux Klan in Scottsboro and taken photos of Democrat lawyer Parker Edmistons putting up Riley for governor signs. He thought he was doing a dirty trick on Riley. But what he didn't know was that the Riley campaign had set him up and they planned to use photos of the incident against Democrats, somehow, including Don Siegelman.

While Siegelman has denied it, Ms. Simpson's testimony shows she is still convinced that the photos of the Klan rally had something to do with Siegelman's concession.

The other reason Ms. Simpson says she signed the affidavit and agreed to testify about this incident was because of "dirty, untrue" research she was asked to do by the Riley campaign.

In the fall of 2006, a Riley campaign worker came by her office and asked her to meet with the governor at a birthday party at Alabama band member Randy Owens' house in Ft. Payne.

"But anyway, the thing is this, the governor was having a birthday party out there and they wanted me to meet with them to talk about some campaign stuff," Ms. Simpson says. "And this lawyer asked me to do some things I did not feel comfortable with."

The questioners for the House Judiciary Committee do not probe further on this, but from previous reporting in the Locust Fork Journal, it is obvious she is talking about a plan by the Riley campaign to frame a powerful Democrat in the Alabama Legislature for something he did not do.

That was the last straw that caused Ms. Simpson to turn against the Riley's and no longer remain a loyal Riley-Bush Republican. Her testimony is tantamount to the sworn statements of a federal whistleblower. And it is critical to understanding how the Bush White House worked when it came to using the federal court system to seek Republican victories in elections around the country, including Alabama.

Editor's Note: Any press reports that ignore this and focus on other parts of the testimony are at least misleading and at worst part of an orchestrated coverup to try and protect the political fortunes of Bob Riley and George Bush, and to potentially prevent the indictment of former White House Aide Karl Rove, who resigned in August as these charges were coming to light. Rove and other White House aides are still in defiance of Congressional subpoenas under a broad claim of executive privilege.

Download the full transcript as a PDF file here

Statement from the House Judiciary Committee

Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the transcript from the sworn testimony of Dana Jill Simpson, an Alabama attorney who earlier this year executed an affadavit that has stirred renewed interest in the prosecution and subsequent conviction of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. In the affadavit and the closed-door interview with committee staff, she cites conversations that allege Karl Rove's involvement in the decision to prosecute Siegelman.

The issue is expected to be covered during an upcoming joint subcommittee hearing titled, "Allegations of Selective Prosecution: The Erosion of Public Confidence in Our Federal Justice System."

The hearing was originally scheduled to take place Thursday, October 11, but was postponed due to a change in the congressional schedule. The hearing is expected to be rescheduled soon. Below you'll find a summary of points from the interview.

Points from the Sworn On-the-Record Interview

1. Ms. Simpson stated under oath that she adheres to and stands by the statements in her May 21, 2007, affidavit. (Pages 85-86) She testified: “What I understood, or what I believed Mr. Canary to be saying, was that he had had this ongoing conversation with Karl Rove about Don Siegelman, and that Don Siegelman was a thorn to them and basically he was going to – he had been talking with Rove. Rove had been talking with the Justice Department, and they were pursuing Don Siegelman as a result of Rove talking to the Justice Department at the request of Bill Canary.” (27)

2. Ms. Simpson described a 2005 conversation with Rob Riley in which Mr. Riley stated that, in late 2004, Karl Rove had contacted the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice to press for further prosecution of Don Siegelman, and had also stated that the case would be assigned to a federal judge who “hated” Mr. Siegelman and who would “hang Don Siegelman.” (50-57) According to Ms. Simpson, Mr. Riley stated:

* that the case against Don Siegelman in the Northern District had been “miserably messed up” by United States Attorney Alice Martin and had been dismissed by a federal Judge in 2004 (48-50);

* that, with that case out of the way, Mr. Siegelman was “the biggest threat” to Governor Bob Riley – Rob Riley’s father – in the coming 2006 Governor’s race (48);

* that, in late 2004, Bill Canary and Governor Riley had spoken to Karl Rove about Mr. Siegelman and that Rove had approached the head of the Public Integrity section of the Department about bringing another case against Mr. Siegelman and giving more resources to the prosecution (50-52);

* that the new case against Mr. Siegelman would be brought in the Middle District of Alabama and would be assigned to Chief Judge Mark Fuller, whom Rob Riley knew from college (50-53);

* that “Fuller would hang Don Siegelman” because he believed Mr. Siegelman had caused Fuller to be audited in a former position which had exposed some questionable financial dealings by Fuller (56-57); and

* that Mr. Siegelman would be indicted on charges related to Richard Scrushy because Mr. Scrushy was very unpopular and it would be useful to link the two men together. (84-85, 106).

In fact, several months after this conversation described by Ms. Simpson, Governor Siegelman and Richard Scrushy were indicted in the Middle District of Alabama on May 17, 2005 and the case was assigned to Judge Fuller.

3. During the interview, Ms. Simpson responded to some of the comments that have been made in recent months regarding the statements in her May 21, 2007, affidavit:

* Ms. Simpson explained why she believes that the “Karl” discussed in the conversation described in her May 21, 2007, affidavit was Karl Rove. (25-26.)

* Ms. Simpson identified telephone records reflecting the November 18, 2002, call described in her May 21, 2007, affidavit. (29-30, 32) She also identified other phone calls between her and Rob Riley during the 2002 campaign season, and identified a series of letters showing that she has regularly worked on legal matters with Mr. Riley since 1998. (30-34)

* Ms. Simpson testified that the affidavit she executed on May 21, 2007, had a narrow focus and only covered the events and circumstances surrounding the November 18, 2002, telephone call – and did not include all the information known to her that was potentially relevant to the Siegelman prosecution – because she had only been asked to prepare an affidavit on that phone conversation. (81, 140.) Ms. Simpson further stated that she had been reluctant to become involved in the matter and had delayed some time before concluding that she was obligated to prepare and execute her affidavit. (70, 73-74, 79.)

* Ms. Simpson testified that she is a lifelong Republican, who has worked on political campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Judge Roy Moore of Alabama, and Governor Bob Riley of Alabama, among others. (7-11)