…and Justice for Some.

It appears that TIME magazine has helped crack open an honest-to-God Republican conspiracy within the DOJ (at least within their Alabama offices). As usual these days, the actual conspiracy comes as less of a surprise than the fact that someone is actually doing something about it.

Pacific Free Press reported many of the details yesterday and although this specific case seems to be limited to Alabama (so far as can be currently proven), it's pretty harrowing.  In short, a lobbyist went on-record at the Alabama Department of Justice offices and said he had made illegal campaign contributions (aka bribes) to a number of prominent Republicans as well as one prominent Democrat in particular — Alabama's Governor (at the time) Don Siegelman.

Siegelman was duly prosecuted and convicted last year, but none of the Republicans who received similar contributions were even investigated, much less brought to trial. This didn't raise much ire because it was not publicly known that other names had been named, until TIME apparently received the documents from someone inside the DOJ.

Not only were the Republicans not prosecuted, but several individuals who separately sought prosecution against these and other Republican officials in Alabama reported that they were roadblocked, told the DOJ was not interested in pursuing their accusations, and in at least one case they were allegedly threatened with having a Grand Jury convened to seek an indictment against them if they did not drop the issue.

Furthermore several independant observers noted Federal Judge Mark Fuller, who presided over Siegelman's trial, exhibited suspicious behavior during the trial in a number of ways — in particular, Siegelman filed a motion for release pending appeal and although these motions are typically granted almost automatically in cases like this, Fuller failed to make any ruling on the motion whatsoever.

Other information has been brought to light which suggests Justice Fuller, who apparently owns a company which benefits from defense contracts, may be implicated in some illegal dealings of his own regarding unauthorized access to classified information possibly obtained from Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who the New York Post reported has been investigated for mishandling classified information and with whom Fuller may have had business dealings.

All-in-all it's a big mess and next Thursday the House Judiciary Committee is set to open hearings on politically motivated prosecutions, with this case as a centerpiece. Any blind goat can see the events that occurred in Alabama fall in line with Alberto Gonzalez's policies and that Gonzalez fell in line with Rove and the "Loyal Bushies".

It's a shame that those men were permitted to resign in comfort when they should face criminal prosecution themselves and a crime-in-itself that Bush & Cheney will likely be permitted to continue ruining this country until their term is up rather than either of them facing impeachment.

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