Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman likely just spent his last Thanksgiving in a federal prison. While a possible release date approaches in February, he told supporters he is still hoping for a presidential pardon before Barack Obama leaves office.
In an email, he noted that there were 76 days remaining until he might be released.
“We are just a few steps from the prison cell door, February 8th, but there is another deadline looming. D.J.T’s Inauguration day in DC. President Obama’s last day is our last hope. He is only person who can, with his signature, right the wrong that I, and so many of us, have been seeking,” Siegelman wrote.
“So maybe, if I ask you to send a special word or thought to President Obama, maybe, just maybe he’ll hear our collective cry, if so, that will be another Blessing for which we can all be thankful,” he added.
The disgraced one-term Alabama governor has spent most of the past nine years in a federal prison after facing conviction on charges of bribery and obstruction in 2006. At the time, prosecutors claimed that he had “sold” a state regulatory position to former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in exchange for a $500,000 campaign contribution. He and his family have since waged an aggressive pushback campaign, claiming that his imprisonment was partially due to a conspiracy tied to George W. Bush’s advisor Karl Rove.
In early November, WikiLeaks revealed that top figures in Hillary Clinton’s campaign had kept a close eye on Siegelman’s case, though there seemed to be no sign of traction that could result in a pardon.
Siegelman has said that he will continue to seek exoneration from President Obama, who has set a record for the most jail sentences commuted this year. There has been no indication that clemency for Siegelman is on the White House’s radar.
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