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Sponsored by Friends of Don Siegelman  2007
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Who are the Players?
US ATTORNEYS
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Bill Pryor
photo: Al gov
Former Alabama Attorney General
who worked with Karl Rove
photo: video freeze from FTR interview

Mrs. Bill (Leura) Canary was
appointed by Bush to the position
of  U.S. Attorney in Montgomery.  
She is one of Bill Canary's "girls"
commissioned with "taking care"
of Siegelman.
Leura Canary
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Troy King
photo: Hubbard Website
King is Attorney General of Alabama
Alice Martin
Alice Martin, US attorney in
Birmingham
Navigaton for Press and Other News
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    William “Bill” Holcombe Pryor
    Former Alabama Attorney General and a Federal Judge on the United
    States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

    William Pryor was a ferociously partisan figure and one of the
    most controversial judicial nominees in recent memory; he
    previously served as Alabama’s Attorney General. He used his
    position to initiate a criminal investigation of Siegelman within
    weeks of Siegelman’s inauguration as governor.

    <more>

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    Mrs. William Canary (Leura Garret)
    U.S. Attorney in Montgomery

    Leura Canary is a Bush appointed U.S. Attorney in Montgomery
    who brought the corruption case against Siegelman, first as an
    assistant to Bill Pryor, and then as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery.

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    Troy King
    Attorney General of Alabama and
    Bob Riley’s Former Lawyer/Legal Advisor

    Troy King was a Republican Politician who helped indict Don
    Siegelman. Working closely with US Attorney, Alice Martin, King
    appeared at the press conference announcing Siegelman’s
    indictment because, “the investigation was a joint federal-state
    project conducted by Martin and state Attorney General Troy
    King's staff.”    

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    Alice Martin
    US Attorney in Birmingham

    She has recently come to prominence as one of Bill Canary's
    "girls". An affidavit claimed that Bill Canary promised Rob Riley
    that "his girls" would take care of Siegelman. One of his "girls"
    was his wife, Leura Canary, the other was Alice Martin. They
    were both appointed to US Attorney posts in Alabama by Bush.

    She has run twice for public office as a Republican and lost both
    races to Democrats. Republican Gov. Fob James appointed
    Martin as a Lauderdale County Circuit Court judge in 1997.  She
    lost her bid to retain the judgeship in the 1998 general election
    to a Democrat. In 2000, Martin ran for a place on the Alabama
    Court of Criminal Appeals.  She won the Republican primary but
    lost to incumbent Democrat Sue Bell Cobb in the general
    election.   
    [Birmingham News, Faulk, 5/4/00; Birmingham News, Orndorff,
    4/28/01]   

    Martin expressed bitterness toward democrats and said she
    thought Republicans were treated unfairly.  

    When she lost her 1998 campaign for election to the Lauderdale
    County Circuit Court, Martin told the Associated Press, “As long
    as the most important question people ask candidates is
    whether you’re a Republican or Democrat in this county, I think
    Republicans will have difficulty.”
    [AP, 11/5/98]  

    In the controversy surrounding the sacking of eight United
    States attorneys for as yet unexplained reasons by Attorney
    General Alberto Gonzales it has been reported that there exists
    a list within the Department of Justice rating all 93 USAs on what
    is suspected to be political criteria.

    Where does Alice Martin, the U.S. attorney for Alabama's
    Northern District, rank?

    An appointee of President George W. Bush and a woman
    rumored to have higher political ambitions in Alabama, Martin
    has had a couple of high-profile setbacks to overcome.

    Her official bio on her website says, "During the last five years,
    Mrs. Martin has provided leadership and played a personal role
    in many significant investigations involving domestic terrorism
    (Eric Robert Rudolph), public corruption, corporate fraud, and
    violent crime, including narcotics and firearm prosecutions.

    "Mrs. Martin supervised the corporate fraud investigation of
    HealthSouth Corporation from 2003-2006, and subsequent trial
    of Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth's former CEO which was the
    first case prosecuted under the tenants of the Sarbanes-Oxley
    Statute," her bio continues. "Those efforts resulted in the
    conviction of 17 corporate officers."

    What the bio doesn't point out is that the prosecution of Scrushy
    failed -- he was acquitted by a federal jury -- and that most of
    those 17 HealthSouth convictions came in plea bargains as she
    tried the make the case against Scrushy. It was only when
    Scrushy was charged again in Alabama's Middle District under a
    different set of federal prosecutors that Scrushy was found guilty
    of conspiracy, bribery and fraud on charges unrelated to the
    first trial, a conviction that he is now appealing.

    Martin also does not mention her 2004 attempt to convict former
    Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman on a bid-rigging scheme. The
    indictment, announced with much fanfare, came in May of that
    year, just as Siegelman was gearing up to run for the governor's
    mansion that he had lost to Republican Gov. Bob Riley two
    years earlier. But in October of that year, Martin abruptly
    dropped all charges after the third judge in the contentious case
    threw out much of the evidence "with prejudice," meaning that
    the charges could not be refiled based on disallowed evidence.

    Again, it was left to the feds in Montgomery to make charges of
    racketeering, bribery and extortion stick in the same case in
    which Scrushy and and two other former Siegelman
    administration officials. Siegelman is also appealing his
    conviction, although he admits his political career, that saw him
    elected lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of
    state over the years, is all but over.

    Of course in Bush World, where there are charges that the DOJ
    has been unconstitutionally politicized, the mere fact that Martin
    was making Siegelman's political life difficult probably counts for
    a lot and might explain that for all her high-profile failures she
    appears to be one USA in good standing with Bush and political
    advisor Karl Rove.

    And I think when their "rankings" of USAs finally is made public,
    we'll see proof of that.


    <source:Tuscaloosa News>
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