Project's National Press Club Speech Cites DOJ Prosecution Misconduct
The Justice Integrity Project documented appalling abuses of defendant legal rights in a July 21 speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. As executive director, I spoke about the project's ongoing work documenting abusive tactics against white-collar defendants of varied political backgrounds. Bruce FeinEarlier in the month, the weekly Washington Update public affairs show we co-host brought on two author-experts. Bruce Fein, right, a high-ranking DOJ official in the Reagan administration and author of this summer's American Empire Before the Fall, criticized Kagan for what he called her “ridiculous” arguments extending presidential power and endangering historic U.S. civil rights. Dick Russell, author of the best-seller this spring American Conspiracies plus six previous books, described BP's Gulf oil "volcano" as the worst natural disaster in recorded history. Visit here to listen to Washington Update and previous shows in the series featuring expert guests.
More generally, a 2003 affidavit by a Missouri attorney alleging corruption by an Alabama federal judge provides a key both to the government’s Siegelman prosecution and to its unwillingness to investigate serious, documented allegations of government wrongdoing by prosecutors and judges alike.
Paul Benton Weeks, III, was the Missouri attorney who filed the affidavit, which outlines corruption unrelated to the Siegelman case and seeks Fuller’s recusal, impeachment and indictment on criminal charges. As described in the materials, he hand-delivered copies of the papers in 2003 to leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, every Senator on the Judiciary Committee, plus court, Department of Justice and bar association officials. He says no one ever contacted him for an investigation despite explosive documentation of corrupton and waste of taxpayer funds.
He filed the affidavit in Alabama’s federal court with 22 exhibits describing evidence of corruption by a then-new federal judge, Mark E. Fuller, who has since gone on to become promoted to chief federal judge for the state’s middle district. Fuller also went on to preside over the nation’s most famous “political prosecution,” that of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. The affidavit was removed by authorities from federal court files. The Justice Integrity Project obtained a copy and now makes it available with its exhibits for the first time to the public.
New York Times, 
Washington Post, 
Washington Post, 
Washington Post, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
Washington Post, 
Washington Post, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, 
New York Times, ‘
