Siegelman speaks: Rove must testify.

BIRMINGHAM Former Gov. Don Siegelman said Thursday that he wants former White House adviser Karl Rove to testify before Congress, whether 'he lies under oath, tells the truth or pleads the Fifth.'

Siegelman was freed on bond March 28 after serving nine months in federal prison for bribery and obstruction of justice. He said that while his primary concern is winning his appeal, there are bigger issues involved in his prosecution by the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Montgomery.

'This is not about Don Siegelman, and it's not about the Alabama case,' he said in his first interview with an Alabama newspaper since being released from a federal prison in Oakdale, La. 'This is about America, it is about finding out who hijacked the Department of Justice and used it as a political tool to win elections.'

Siegelman, who had just returned from two days in Washington conferring with U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said he is willing to testify before Congress about his case 'or anything else they want me to do.'

The interview in a makeshift office in downtown Birmingham came as Democrats on the committee issued a 40-page report Thursday saying they strongly suspect the former Alabama governor was the victim of a politically-motivated prosecution and asking for an independent probe of the Justice Department.

'I tried to make clear to Congressman Conyers that, to me, above everything else, [my case is about] making it clear to anyone who might think that they can get away with this in the future that they won't be able to,' Siegelman said. Siegelman has maintained that he was targeted by political operatives, particularly Rove, the President George W. Bush's former chief political advisor.

'So they've got to find out who is responsible, hold them responsible and make a clear and unequivocal statement that Congress and people of this country are not going to tolerate people taking over the Department of Justice and using it as a political tool,' he said.

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