Update on Siegelman case.

From White Collar Crime blog:

The Chief of the Appellate Section Criminal Division sent a letter earlier in July informing Siegelman's attorneys that there had been an investigation of emails received by some jurors and that the judge had been informed by the U.S. Marshals Service "that the Postal Inspectors were investigating the receipt of purported emails by co-workers of the two jurors and had concluded that the purported emails were not authentic..." One has to give high marks to the Chief of the Appellate Section of DOJ's Criminal Division for disclosing this information to defense counsel.

The letters were from an unknown source.

The Letters - Download KilbornOPR.pdf

AG Mukasey says Siegelman findings to be released

We shall see if the Mukasey releases the entire truth behind Siegelman's case. I'm not holding my breath that Mukasey will give all of the evidence.

Here's how Governor Siegelman explained the whole issue:

The emails were mailed anonymously to defense lawyers and members of the media. They were allegedly between two jurors -- including the jury foreman. The conversations in the emails were dated during the TRIAL and not deliberation. They discussed how to get others to go for conviction. One in particular said "Gov is up shit creek." Another said "all politicians r scum." Another said "37 coming along. Keep working on 20." – referring to juror numbers. This is just a sampling.

We filed a motion and asked that the emails be investigated. The prosecution objected and the judge overruled us. We filed an additional motion asking that the servers be preserved in case the appellate court wanted to go back later and investigate. The prosecution objected to that also and the Judge overruled us

again.

Now we know that after their protestations about how any investigation would destroy the sanctity of the jury process, the prosecution undertook a secret "investigation." The Judge was informed of the "results." Yet the defense was never notified. The prosecution then told Judge Fuller that the emails were fabricated while the judge was considering our motion for a new trial based on those same emails.

Judge Fuller then sat in judgment with prejudicial information in his mind that was never disclosed to the defense. The defense had no opportunity to be involved in the investigation, question anyone, or ask questions. A per se Due Process violation.

It was an outrageous breach of ethics. The government should never have conducted a secret investigation, the judge should never have been told, and above all, both the judge and the prosecutors should have immediately told us -- yet we were never told until this last week, about one year and three months after the fact.

From Emptywheel at FDL:

Artur Davis revealed yet another example of potential misconduct in the Don Siegelman case. He revealed that, at the same time as Judge Fuller was refusing Siegelman's lawyers' motions for an investigation into emails that may have proved juror misconduct, the government--the postal inspectors!--were conducting a secret investigation into the emails.

This demostrates a major hijack of the Justice Dept if you have Postal Inspectors conducting secret investigation into the emails. This is not the first case in which postal inspectors had conducted improper and uncalled investigations. Remember Jeane Palfrey's case when the two postal inspectors, Joe Clark and Maria Couvillion, posed a couple to try to gain access to Ms. Palfrey's property while she was in Germany? All roads lead back to a very corrupted Justice Department, USA offices and Criminal Division.