Released emails show that Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta acted as a middleman between advocates seeking to free former Gov. Don Siegelman, and the White House.
The Democratic Governor of Alabama from 1999 until 2003, Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on bribery charges stemming from an appointment to a statewide hospital oversight board that he gave to a former hospital CEO who had donated to a state lottery campaign supported by the Governor.
Advocates for Siegelman claim, however, that he was convicted of something that is routine in politics. They allege that his prosecution was a political hit job orchestrated by the Bush White House and Karl Rove, and are asking the Obama administration to pardon Siegelman.
In a series of emails released by WikiLeaks, Podesta was informed of Siegelman’s case via a June 2015 message from Jack Brown, an individual that, according to the email, Podesta had met while jogging along the East River in New York City.
“The grotesque railroading of a Progressive and good man who Rove could not legitimately defeat at the polls is clearly a scandalous black mark in the history of American justice,” Brown wrote in the email.
“Better to rectify it before it’s too late,” he added.
Podesta then forwarded the message on to Neil Eggleston, the White House Counsel under President Obama.
“This is the random shit that happens to me running in NYC. You looking at the Siegelman case,” Podesta said in the correspondence.
Eggleston responded, “Thanks,” before exchanging pleasantries with Podesta.
Several months later, in January 2016, Podesta received another email from Knox informing him that the Supreme Court had refused to look into Siegelman’s case. Brown referred to the former Governor as “America #1 political prisoner.”
Podesta again forwarded the message to Eggleston, writing, “Putting back on your screen.”
It’s unclear if Podesta’s prodding moved the White House any closer to pardon.
Reports on the Siegelman affair have offered up proof that the former Governor was indeed targeted for prosecution by the Bush White House for political reasons.
A CBS 60 Minutes expose in February 2008, for example, reported that Karl Rove was behind the aggressive prosecution in an effort to unseat a popular Democratic politician in the South.
A Republican lawyer in Alabama, Jill Simpson, alleged that Rove directly asked her to conduct opposition research on Siegelman, and that subsequent corruption charges were part of a “five-year secret campaign to ruin the governor.“
Despite the questions lingering over his conviction, Siegelman is still locked up at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana, while his supporters pressure President Obama for a pardon. More than 78,000 people have inked their name on a petition pending at the White House’s website. More than 100 former state Attorneys General have also joined in to lobby for a pardon.
Siegelman’s release date isn’t until August 2017. His son, Joseph Siegelman told the Anniston Star last month that efforts to pardon his dad would continue even after his father is released.
“We want Don Siegelman to be free, but we also want justice,” he said, noting that President Obama has the power to pardon anyone.
Although he has commuted the sentences of hundreds of low-level drug offenders during his administration, President Obama has used his pardoning power sparingly.
Through more than seven years of his presidency, Obama has granted only 62 pardons. George W. Bush issued 189 pardons during his eight-years in office. Bill Clinton granted 369 pardons during his two terms in the White House.
**Correction: The article has been updated to reflect the correct last name of the individual corresponding with John Podesta. His name is Jack Brown, not Jack Knox.
