New emails released in Hillary Clinton’s Wikileaks scandal show that the candidate’s top aides attempted to help seek a presidential pardon for former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman.
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, aiming at a presidential pardon.
Apparently, Clinton’s top lieutenants took note.
A series of leaked emails reveal that Hillary’s campaign chair, John Podesta, had reached out to White House officials about Siegelman on multiple occasions.
On July 8, 2014, Podesta- an alum of Knox College- received an email from current Knox professor Robin Metz. The letter plead for justice on Seigelman’s behalf, partially blaming the Bush Administration for his incarceration.
“This whole affair, thanks to Rove and the Bush thugs, is an outrage, a travesty, and a dangerous miscarriage of justice,” Metz wrote.
Rumors that Karl Rove prompted federal involvement in Seigelman’s case have long circulated, though the claim has never been proven. Supporters say that, if true, such a high level of interest from a White House advisor would prove that political forces may have worked against the former governor.
In another correspondence from June 14, 2015, Podesta forwarded an email to White House Counsel Neil Eggleston, which referred to the former governor’s situation as a “grotesque railroading of a progressive and a good man.” It again points a finger at Rove.
After the Supreme Court rejected the former governor’s appeal for a new sentencing hearing and trial in January, Podesta again reached out to Eggleston. He forwarded the White House official an email titled “More bad news for Don Seigelman.” It was a letter that Seigelman wrote to supporters, claiming SCOTUS “thumbed its nose at justice” through their decision.
“Putting back on your screen,” Podesta wrote to Eggleston.
Seigelman 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 Seigelman is on the White House’s radar.
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