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'A bizarre tale'
Dana Jill Simpson, who has been an operative and supporter for Gov. Bob Riley, Judge Roy Moore, both George Bushes, Ronald Reagan and other Republicans. told a story about a plot to "get" Siegelman that she says involved the son of the governor, a former Supreme Court Justice, a powerful business lobbyist, federal prosecutors, a federal judge, the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department and former White House advisor Karl Rove. If she had not told this story under oath, questioned by lawyers for both political parties, and facing the possibility of being charged with perjury and losing her license to practice law if she lied, I would not be commenting on the matter. It was interesting to me that what apparently tweaked Simpson's conscious occurred in the fall of 2006 when a Riley campaign worker wanted her to meet with the governor at a birthday party for him at the home of country musician Randy Owens. She testified that at that time "a disbarred lawyer working in the Riley campaign" and "a guy named Gerald Dial (a former State Senator), asked me to do something I was uncomfortable with." So Simpson called "Doc" Barron, the brother of State Sen. Lowell Barron, because she said it was something about which "Lowell needed to be aware." Barron then recommended she call Montgomery attorney Joe Espy, who recommended she report what she knew to the State Bar. The Bar recommended that she call Richard Scrushy's lawyer, Art Leach, which she did. Most of the information about which Simpson testified, came in conversations with Rob Riley, the governor's son, with whom she had a close working relationship. Simpson was what I call "a farm team lawyer," meaning she would refer cases to Riley's Birmingham law firm and earn what is called a "retainer fee." She produced several exhibits at the hearing, including correspondence from Rob Riley, and records of the 11-minute call at 10:52 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2002 to Rob Riley at which time she said a possible Siegelman concession and withdrawal of his suit challenging the vote count in his loss to Bob Riley was discussed by Rob Riley, former Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts and Bill Canary, president of the Business Council of Alabama and husband of U. S. Attorney Leura Canary. 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 Rob Riley since 1998. Other points Other points Simpson made in her testimony were: • 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; • that, with that case out of the way, Siegelman was now "the biggest threat" to Gov. Bob Riley in the coming 2006 governor's race; • that in late 2004, Canary and Gov Riley had spoken to Karl Rove about Siegelman and that Rove had approached the head of the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department about bringing another case against Siegelman and giving more resources to the prosecution; • that the new case against 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; • that "Fuller would hang Don Siegelman" because he believed Siegelman had caused Fuller to be audited when he was a district attorney, which exposed some questionable financial dealings by Fuller; and • that Siegelman would be indicted on charges related to Richard Scrushy because Scrushy was very unpopular and it would be useful to link the two men together. Rob Riley has issued a blanket denial of Simpson's allegations and said he will offer his own selfproduced affidavit to the House Judiciary Committee. Butts has steadfastly denied he was on the telephone conversation in Birmingham. Simpson has been interviewed by 60 Minutes. CBS tried to interview Siegelman, but were blocked by the government. Simpson's testimony will be used by the House Judiciary Committee in connection with its broader investigation into suggestions of political prosecutions by the Justice Department and the firing of eight U. S. Attorneys.
Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. E-mail him at: bob@montgomeryindependent. com
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