Justice Irregularities In Alabama Continue Disgrace

The U.S. Senate approved by voice vote June 30 a new U.S. attorney for Alabama, thereby extending a series of disgraces blighting the federal justice system in that state and nationally. The Senate voted to approve George Beck, 69, to run the Middle District office in Alabama’s capital city of Montgomery. The Senate failed to require that Beck, right, appear at a hearing to answer questions about a host of pending issues.

The most important question is how he could supervise personnel in that office who framed former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman after Beck himself represented the main witness who helped secure convictions. It remains as the nation’s most notorious political prosecution of the past decade. In 2008, CBS 60 Minutes reported that DOJ’s prosecutors coached and threatened Beck’s client Nick Bailey in up to 70 interrogations without required disclosure to the defense. Our Justice Integrity Project's four-part investigative series cited below explains further why Beck’s role is especially disturbing.

Confirmation hearings and trials are two of the rare moments when the public has a chance to learn the secrets of powerful figures in law enforcement via cross-examination. But the Senate shirked that process and rubber-stamped Beck. Siegelman’s 2006 conviction on corruption charges was enabled by the flagrant bias of a partisan Republican trial judge, Mark E. Fuller, the chief federal judge in the district. He is portrayed at left in a rare photo of him. The photo is by freelance photographer Phil Fleming in chambers at the judge's invitation to help commemorate the Siegeman jury verdict a few minutes before.

As the trial and appeal moved forward, Fuller secretly obtained $300 million in Bush contracts for Doss Aviation, Inc., a closely held company the judge controls as by far its largest shareholder. The company primarily refuels Air Force planes and trains Air Force pilots, but also makes uniforms for military and civilian federal personnel.

In 2009, we documented Fuller's secret enrichment, which should outrage every honest federal judge, prosecutor or Senator in the nation. Also, we showed that the Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), right, never bothered during its 2002 confirmation hearing for Fuller to ask the nominee about Doss.

One question should have been how Fuller could run Doss, a Colorado-based company, as CEO for seven years before his appointment to the bench while also supposedly holding down a full-time job at that same time as elected state prosecutor in Alabama. An all-Republican appeals court weighing Siegelman's motion to recuse Fuller sees nothing wrong with the judge's money-making, and doesn’t even bother in its opinions to cite the leading Supreme Court case governing recusal. That 1989  decision requires Fuller's removal under a standard that requires the judge to inform litigants of potential grounds creating the appearance of bias. This is particularly true when, as here, a whistleblower has provided sworn testimony under cross-examination that Republican operatives picked Fuller to replace a previous judge because Fuller "hated" Siegelman.

Leahy’s indifference to such inquiries to ascertain the facts doubtless stems at least in part from his desire to curry good relations with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, below, the committee’s ranking Republican and a tough, canny fighter for his agenda, which includes support for Fuller, Beck and the important behind-the-scenes interests they exemplify.

Similarly, there’s no indication that Leahy’s committee or the Justice Department responded to 180-pages of legal paper papers hand-delivered to them in 2003 by a Missouri attorney seeking Fuller’s recusal from a major civil case, along with Fuller's impeachment and prosecution on corruption charges. The filing was by an exprienced litigator named Paul B. Weeks III, representing a client in a civil action before Fuller against a friend of the Bush family. As normal due diligence, the litigator checked the judge's background and then became worried.  From reading newspaper clippings and later undertaking in-depth interviews, Weeks became suspicious that Leahy's Senate committee had just confirmed a dishonest judge without any significant questions about the nominee's vulnerable points.

The lawyer undertook a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-style effort to reform what he thought was an abberation in the justice system. More specficially, Weeks prepared and delivered materials focused on Fuller’s efforts to obtain an improper payment of $330,000 in State of Alabama employee pension funds to pay off a suspected blackmailer of the judge. The attorney hand-delivered his evidence to Leahy’s Senate office and to every other member of the committee and House leadership, as well as mailing it to Fuller, key officals at the DOJ, the court system and elsewhere.

But instead of investigating the specifics, Leahy, Sessions and each of the more than 50 government recipients appear to have the ignored the matter entirely. As the one exception, Fuller promptly recused himself from the civil case. But the filing documenting the reasons for the recusal and call for impeachment mysteriously disappeared from the Montgomery clerk's office docket and its electronic PACER search function for the public. Therefore, no one in the public could see the evidence, including Siegelman's attorneys after he was indicted in May 2005. The DOJ put the indictment in the middle district after a judge in Birmingham disparaged the government's first case against Siegelman.

The defense attorneys were thus clueless during their client's trial. Fuller, as the replacement judge, issued a large number of remarkable pro-prosecution rulings. Secretly, the judge also controlled between 44 and 32 percent of shares at various times of Doss, a contractor in the thick of the nation's energy and military sectors. The Doss ownership thus created riches and pressure-points for the judge hidden from any public scrutiny.

Once the scandal came to light, the Justice Department argued on Fuller's behalf that not one single independent-minded citizen in the country would think the facts might create an appearance of impropriety. This was to meet a rigorous legal standard, and enable Fuller to continue to sit in judgment over Siegelman.

Similarly, the Justice Department is now helping shield former Republican Gov. Bob Riley from answering questions in a major gambling corruption trial that Riley initiated amid reports that he and his cronies received up to $27 million in unreported political contributions and investment funds from gambling interests. Alabama gambling promoter and longtime political power broker Milton McGregor is the main defendant in the corruption trial in Montgomery. Federal prosecutors accuse McGregor and his lobbying team of bribing four state senators to enact legislation affirming that McGregor’s “electronic bingo” business is legal at his casino, VictoryLand, located outside the capital. Riley, who left office in January after two terms as governor, argues that such bingo is illegal and has tried to shut it down.

Political insiders have long wondered what would happen if McGregor and other defendants got the former governor on the witness stand and questioned him in depth about the gambling business.

One topic might be $13 million that was described in a Senate oversight hearing as coming to Riley from Mississippi casino owners through their lobbyist Jack Abramoff to help fund Riley’s anti-gambling crusade in Alabama. The purpose? To help Riley, right, defeat Siegelman in Alabama’s 2002 and 2006 races for governor, and thereby protect Mississippi casinos from competition. Testimony indicated the casino money went through Abramoff and his aide Michael Scanlon, a former Riley aide who was the primary villain in last winter’s Hollywood film, Casino Jack. Senate testimony indicated that Mississippi casinos also paid former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed to stir up Alabama moralists against Siegelman, who advocated a state lottery to improve funding for Alabama’s schools.

Other questions for Riley in the gambling case could involve reputed receipt by his cronies of nearly $13 million from McGregor plus nearly $1 million in other funds from other Alabama investors to establish a national lottery in Russia. We reported last year, based on sources, that McGregor and other investors were told that Russians stole their money without a trace.  Alabama legal commentator Roger Shuler wrote a column in April saying of the lottery scheme:

McGregor has been the feds' main target all along. Why is that? McGregor was involved with an outfit called Global Trust Partners, which launched a failed attempt to establish a national lottery in Russia. Tuscaloosa entrepreneur Robert Sigler was head of Global Trust Partners, and Rob Riley has close ties to Sigler. In other words, McGregor used to do business with the Riley clan and their associates -- and he probably has enough dirt on them to sink the U.S.S. Missouri.

Last month, a Bush-appointed magistrate judge excused Riley from testifying in McGregor’s trial, pending developments. This enabled Riley to vacation to Alaska.  A week ago, Riley fell off his motorcycle in a remote area near Fairbanks, reportedly sustaining serious injuries. He is recuperating in Florida. His attorneys promptly filed legal papers arguing that he should not have to face McGregor’s questioning.

Riley helped set the stage for the federal gambling indictments of McGregor and fellow casino operator Ronnie Gilley by ordering a 100-police car raid at dawn last year on Gilley’s Country Crossing electronic bingo casino near Dothan. The federal probe has been led until recently by Leura Canary, Beck’s Bush-appointed predecessor as Middle District U.S. attorney. She had huge conflicts of interest herself as wife of William Canary, Riley’s first campaign manager and a close friend of Karl Rove.

Justice Department headquarters in Washington assigned also Brenda Morris, who helped win 2008 federal corruption convictions against Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, left, now deceased. That DOJ victory proved short-lived. Morris and other prosecutors illegally suppressed evidence, forcing DOJ to vacate the convictions. In April, an Alabama federal magistrate said Morris and other federal prosecutors again illegally suppressed evidence, this time hurting McGregor and his co-defendants.

Other strange things keep happening in the case. The DOJ mistakenly filed on the electronic PACER system more than two score confidential wiretap applications that were supposed to be secret. Also, we learned last  week from a Shuler report that Gilley is represented by David Harrison, a lawyer convicted in 1997 of federal drug trafficking in a major case and sentenced to 30 months in prison. Gilley pleaded guilty and is a government witness against McGregor and the remaining co-defendants. Check the appendix below for hotlinks to these stories and others cited here.

As we try to make sense of such mysteries, let’s return to the Senate’s approval last week of Beck without any significant questions. Our four-part series this spring argued against Beck’s confirmation here, here, here and here.

We and others have published countless stories about scandals associated with the Siegelman prosecution and his trial judge, Fuller. Among my investigative reports was one in 2009 describing sworn testimony that Republicans picked Fuller to frame Siegelman. We reported also that Republicans had a plan to steer a $35 billion Air Force contract for mid-air tanker refueling planes to Europe’s EADS, manufacturers of Airbus, which promised in return to build a parts assembly plant in Mobile.

Now 65, Siegelman is temporarily free on appeal bond, but faces resentencing by his nemesis Fuller. The paramilitary undercurrents in the Siegelman case are especially disturbing. The federal government created a special anti-Siegelman strike force headquartered at an Air Force base and led by an Air Force colonel in the reserves. The prosecution took Bailey there for interrogation, helping foster an unusual climate of fear.

That climate is especially powerful if one reads 2009 affidavits by Bailey and his friends describing how federal prosecutors pressured Bailey, who was in serious legal jeopardy because of crimes unrelated to Siegelman. Authorities by offered him leniency but also threatened to expose his sexual partners if he did not do what they wanted.

To be fair to Beck, one can argue that he sought and obtained the best deal possible for his client under the circumstances, and has remained silent since for those reasons. But the immense discretion and powers of a U.S. attorney require more Senate vetting on a nominee's overall notions of justice than mere loyalty to one client.

This is especially true because of the many scandals in that particular office that no one in authority will acknowledge. It's simply business as usual at the historic Frank Johnson Federal Courthouse (left) in Montgomery now that it's illustrious namesake, a courageoous federal judge, has passed on. The same is true at the Justice Department and  in the Senate.

My requests for comment on such matters to Beck, the Obama White House, and the Alabama Democratic Party have not yielded any response. Fuller, to his credit, did respond with a no comment. Further, the Judiciary Committee does not make it easy for anyone to follow its hearing schedule, which represents the one real chance that for concerned citizens to observe such officials undergo probing questions. After President Obama on March nominated Beck the Judiciary Committee posted Beck’s bio, for which he listed his 10 major cases. Beck failed to include his representation of Bailey in the Siegelman case. This shows the scant importance he places upon the frame-up, compared to the concerns of at least 100,000 from across the nation who have protested Siegelman's treatment to the White House and DOJ.

The Judiciary committee posted a bare-bones announcement of Beck’s hearing June 9, and has not provided a transcript of the hearing – or any other hearings so far this year. The website does have a 61-minute video of the business meeting in which Beck's nomination was approved without his presence. The video shows that the senators had scant interest the kind of substantive questions about nominee backgrounds raised here. Finally, here is a bare-bones Senate description of its voice vote approving Beck. 

Officials increasingly decline to respond to reporters who ask unwelcome questions, thereby teaching the benefits of the go-along, get-along culture. I see far more of that now than when I covered the Justice Department full-time from 1976 to 1981 as a reporter for the Hartford Courant. In those days, officials expected tough questions on occasion as part of the normal give-and-take.

But we all must adapt to new conditions. Following that spirit is author and legal scholar Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, left, a former Reagan administration official and longtime editor of the Wall Street Journal. In 2008, he published a compelling column (cited in the Appendix below) arguing that the Bush administration had framed the Democrat Siegelman. Roberts now uses a new term in his many oped columns to describe our nation’s most powerful law enforcement body. He calls it: “The Justice Department [sic].”

Update: I asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy for comment via his communications director, Erica Chabot, on why he failed to ask Beck questions at a hearing, just as his committee had approved Fuller without inquiring into his Doss affiliations. I provided a number of specific questions about the Beck and Fuller confirmation and activities, and attached the column above as context.

Her response on Leahy's behalf was as follows: "I hope you note the Senate unanimously approved this nomination, after the Committee did so earlier in June. The Committee followed the same thorough and fair review process it has for U.S. Attorney nominees of Presidents of both parties."

Senate Confirmation of George Beck as Middle District U.S. Attorney

Legal Schnauzer, Coverup in the Siegelman Case Now Extends to the U.S. Senate, Roger Shuler, July 5, 2011.  While many Americans were preparing to eat barbecue and shoot fireworks for the Fourth of July, the U.S. Senate engaged in an extraordinary act of cowardice--not to mention neglect of duty. The Senate approved by voice vote on June 30 the appointment of George Beck as U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Beck replaces Leura Canary, the Bush appointee who helped turn the Don Siegelman case into perhaps the most notorious political prosecution in American history.

But here's the kicker: Beck also played a prominent and highly questionable role in the Siegelman case. Beck's nomination was an opportunity for senators to grill a key figure in the Siegelman prosecution, to help determine how the U.S. justice system went badly off track in the Bush years. The Senate, however, elected to punt, giving Beck a free pass into his new position and throwing an extra  load of dirt onto a coverup of Bush-era criminality. For progressives who once had hope for the Barack Obama administration on justice matters, consider this: Beck is an Obama nominee, and the Senate is controlled by Democrats.

Thom Hartmann Program, Andrew Kreig describes George Beck Senate confirmation controversy, Thom Hartmann, July 6, 2011. The high-rated, nationally syndicated TV and radio host, left, interviews the Justice Integrity Project director about the Project's latest scoop regarding the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Associated Press / Daily Oklahoman, George Beck sworn in as US attorney in Alabama, Phillip Rawls, July 6, 2011. A lawyer who has handled some of Alabama's best known cases waited longer to become the chief federal prosecutor in Montgomery than he may get to serve if President Obama is a one-term president. George Beck, 69, of Santuck took the oath of office Wednesday as U.S. attorney for Alabama's Middle District. The length of time he will be in office depends on whether Obama is re-elected next year

Connecticut Watchdog, Strong Senate Oversight Is a Consumer Issue, Andrew Kreig, July 5, 2011. The U.S. Senate approved by voice vote June 30 a new U.S. attorney for Alabama, thereby raising media watchdog issues for the federal justice system in that state and nationally.  Confirmation hearings are one of the few times in our political system when the public can learn – through the expert questions of Senators, who serve as our surrogates – about sensitive matters in such fields as law enforcement. Here, the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to require Beck to appear at a hearing and answer any questions, including about the Siegelman case and several other major disputes.

Main Justice, Senate Confirms Four U.S. Attorney Nominees, Andrew Ramonas, July 1, 2011. The Senate confirmed four nominees for U.S. attorney posts.

Birmingham  News, Beck Nomination Moves Forward, Mary Orndorff, June 14, 2011.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has moved George Beck's nomination as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery to the full Senate for confirmation. Beck's nomination was approved without debate and by a voice vote along with several other nominees in a business meeting June 9. It is not known when the full Senate will vote on final confirmation. Beck was selected by President Barack Obama on March 31 to take over the top prosecutor job in the Middle District of Alabama, a post that had been held until recently by the holdover appointee of former President George W. Bush, Leura Garrett Canary, left.

Justice Integrity Project, Part I: Senate Must Grill Tainted Alabama DOJ Nominee, Andrew Kreig, April 5, 2011. President Obama ended more than two years of high-profile White House indecision March 31 by naming the prominent Alabama attorney George L. Beck as his nominee to become U.S. attorney for the state’s Montgomery-based middle district. Despite an impressive career overall, Beck is a horrible choice because he was a compliant defense attorney in the notorious prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman’s, the state’s leading Democrat.

Justice Integrity Project, Part II: Bailey-Beck Siegelman Frame-up, Andrew Kreig, April 6, 2011.  Two videos, one from June 2007 and another just seven months later in 2008, illustrate why George Beck is such a bad choice as the Obama nominee to run Alabama’s troubled middle district office in the state capital of Montgomery.

Justice Integrity Project, Part III: Beck's Backers Make Their Case, Andrew Kreig, April 8, 2011.  “For his diligence and relentless pursuit of justice, I have named George L. Beck to serve as a U.S. Attorney,” announced President Obama on March 31. “I am confident he will serve the people of Alabama with distinction.”

Justice Integrity Project, Part IV: What To Do About Obama's Alabama Snafu? Andrew Kreig, April 8, 2011.  The Justice Integrity Project today calls for the Senate Judiciary Committee to invite independent witnesses to testify at the confirmation hearing for George L. Beck, President Obama's nominee to become U.S. attorney for the middle district of Alabama. Only a full review of the conflicts surrounding this nationally important but dubious nomination can restore vitally needed public trust.

Birmingham  News, President Obama nominates George Beck Jr. as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, Mary Orndorff, March 31, 2011.

McGregor Bingo Case

Legal Schnauzer, The Tale of Bob Riley's Motorcycle Crash Gets Stranger and Stranger, Roger Shuler, July 7, 2011. http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/07/tale-of-bob-rileys-motorcycle-crash.html  The story of Bob Riley's motorcycle crash in Alaska has taken a peculiar twist, with news that the man who rescued him said he did not realize at first that the former Alabama governor was even hurt. Steve DeMolen, a sales representative for Caterpillar, and his friend, Delany Smith, came upon the site of Riley's crash on a remote highway north of Fairbanks. During a two-hour drive to the nearest hospital, the only injury DeMolen noticed on Riley was a cut hand.

Legal Schnauzer, Ronnie Gilley's Attorney Has a Drug-Trafficking Conviction In His Past, Roger Shuler, June 30, 2011. The attorney representing Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley in the Alabama bingo trial has a federal drug-trafficking conviction on his record.  David J. Harrison of Geneva was convicted in March 1997 of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.

Legal Schnauzer, Bob Riley's Lawyers Spring Into Action in the Wake of Motorcycle Crash in Alaska, June 28, 2011. Attorneys for Bob Riley did not waste any time in notifying a federal court that the former governor would be temporarily unavailable to testify in the ongoing Alabama electronic-bingo trial. Meanwhile, new details are emerging about the motorcycle crash that left Riley "awake" and "alert," but in critical condition. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Legal Schnauzer, Bob Riley Might Not Be Out of the Woods on Testifying About Abramoff in Alabama Bingo Trial, June 13, 2011. In a decision that should surprise no one, a federal magistrate ruled yesterday that former Alabama Governor Bob Riley will not have to testify in the federal bingo trial that heats up today with the calling of the first witness in Montgomery. Could this be another step in a high-level effort to make sure the public never knows the full extent of the Jack Abramoff scandal?

Legal Schnauzer, Who Benefits From Ronnie Gilley's Guilty Plea in Alabama Bingo Case? Roger Shuler, April 22, 2011. Gilley now appears set to testify against the other bingo defendants, including VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor. And it seems clear now that McGregor has been the feds' main target all along. 
Why is that? McGregor was involved with an outfit called Global Trust Partners, which launched a failed attempt to establish a national lottery in Russia. Tuscaloosa entrepreneur Robert Sigler was head of Global Trust Partners, and Rob Riley has close ties to Sigler. In other words, McGregor used to do business with the Riley clan and their associates -- and he probably has enough dirt on them to sink the U.S.S. Missouri.

The Smoking Gun, Sealed Records Exposed In Major Court Gaffe, Staff investigation, April 22, 2011.  In a shocking failure to protect sensitive details about dozens of ongoing criminal investigations, federal officials somehow allowed confidential information about sealed cases to be publicly accessible via the court system’s online lookup service, The Smoking Gun has learned. Over the past nine months, details of 40 separate sealed court applications filed by federal prosecutors in Alabama were uploaded to PACER, the web-based records system that counts nearly one million users, including defense lawyers, prosecutors, journalists, researchers, private investigators, and government officials.

Justice Integrity Project, Fed. Charges in AL Corruption Case Tainted By Misconduct, Nov. 28, 2010. The Justice Department Monday announced arrests of two Alabama gambling kingpins and four legislators in a corruption probe primarily targeting Democratic office-holders and contributors. But federal authorities ruined their probe's credibility from the outset by relying on prosecutors implicated in the nation's two most notorious public corruption investigations of the last decade.

Siegelman-Scrushy Case

Birmingham News, Editorial: Until and unless the U.S. Supreme Court rules differently, Siegelman and Scrushy remain guilty as charged of bribery, Editorial board, May 17, 2011.  For those who believe in justice, last week's appeals court ruling regarding charges against former Gov. Don Siegelman, right, and HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy had to be satisfying.

Justice Integrity Project, Judges Who Refuse to Recuse Taint Our Justice System, Andrew Kreig, May 16, 2011. Three recent state, federal and Supreme Court controversies show how the public is nearly powerless to obtain due process when conflicted judges refuse to recuse themselves.

Justice Integrity Project, Obama DOJ Continues War Against Bush Prosecution Victims, Andrew Kreig, May 13, 2011. The Obama/Holder Justice Department’s win-at-all-costs campaign against political prosecution victims of the Bush administration continued this week. In unrelated prosecutions of Democrats in New Jersey and Alabama, the Department illustrated once again the unfairness of its procedures and its self-serving ethic of silencing critics.

Justice Integrity Project, Reform Needed After Court Drops Two Siegelman Charges, May 12, 2011. A federal appeals court in Atlanta May 10 reversed two bribery convictions of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and businessman Richard Scrushy but upheld the rest of their 2006 corruption convictions in what our Project has long denounced as the nation’s most notorious political frame-up. The ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sending the case back to the district court for resentencing is yet another reason for the public to demand a thorough investigation of the case.

Justice Integrity Project, More DOJ Abuses Revealed In Notorious Alabama Court, Andrew Kreig, April 23, 2011. A notorious federal prosecutor and federal trial judge face a new scandal for allowing court clerks in Alabama to disclose confidential records about dozens of sensitive law enforcement surveillance operations.

Huffington Post, Siegelman's First Trial Judge Blasts U.S. Prosecutors, Seeks Probe of 'Unfounded' Charges, Andrew Kreig, May 21, 2009. One of the most experienced federal judges in recent Alabama history is denouncing the U.S. Justice Department prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Retired Chief U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon, right, of Birmingham calls for a probe of misconduct by federal prosecutors ─ including their alleged "judge-shopping," jury-pool "poisoning" and "unfounded" criminal charges in an effort to imprison Siegelman.

Huffington Post, Siegelman Deserves New Trial Because of Judge’s ‘Grudge’, Evidence Shows….$300 Million in Bush Military Contracts Awarded to Judge’s Private Company, Andrew Kreig, May 15, 2009. The Alabama federal judge who presided over the 2006 corruption trial of the state's former governor holds a grudge against the defendant for helping to expose the judge's own alleged corruption six years ago. Former Gov. Don Siegelman therefore deserves a new trial with an unbiased judge ─ not one whose privately owned company, Doss Aviation, has been enriched by the Bush administration's award of $300 million in contracts since 2006, making the judge millions in non-judicial income.

Truth In Justice, It Does Happen In America: The Political Trial of Don Siegelman, Paul Craig Roberts, Feb. 28, 2008.  Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. Among other books, he is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.

National Legal Reform Issues

Justice Integrity Project, Strange Twists in 'Casino Jack' Prosecutions Aired, Andrew Kreig, Dec. 23, 2010.  As the movie Casino Jack debuts, a former client of  Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff described on MTL Washington Update radio Dec. 23 why the movie starring Kevin Spacey accurately portrays Abramoff's good qualities. Isidro Garza, Jr. revealed for the first time why he has remained friendly with the notorious lobbyist through the years. Garza is the former Kickapoo Tribal Council representative with significant responsibilities at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, the only legalized gambling facility in Texas.

Connecticut Magazine, Power of Attorneys, Andrew Kreig, June 1985.  A recent scandal concerning the abuse of power by court-appointed attorneys working on behalf of a senile Hartford heiress has sparked legislative efforts to develop new procedures for disciplining unscrupulous lawyers.