Uppity Wisconsin

Every politico in Wisconsin is familiar with the Georgia Thompson prosecution; a travesty of justice that has tainted Wisconsin’s fading reputation for fair play and impartial justice at all levels of government.

But being flushed out now is the scope of a program that the U.S. Dept. of Justice employed onto political opponents in key races across the nation, in which the infamous Georgia Thompson prosecution was but one ugly piece.

Scott Horton, a human rights attorney and writer at Harper's, has broken much new ground investigating DoJ political prosecutions including today's column linking Karl Rove to the prosecution of former Democratic Alabama governor, Don Siegelman.

Weeks ago Horton had also uncovered the outlines of a DoJ scheme to use the DoJ machinery against major Democratic opponents and one tier of Democratic supporters, trial attorneys.

Writes Horton:

Via Mal Contends - Even as the U.S. Justice Department arrogantly stonewalls requests by the House Committee on the Judiciary for documents pertaining to politically-charged prosecutions in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (the Georgia Thompson affair), Wisconsin’s U.S. Atty. Stephen Biskupic volunteered to offer transcribed testimony under oath before the Judiciary Committee.

From Dan Bice in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"If they (the House Judiciary Committee) want to hear from me, I'm happy to do it."
Even if the testimony is transcribed and under oath?
"It really doesn't matter to me," said Biskupic.

The New York Times editorial this morning calls for an aggressive investigation into the DOJ's partisan prosecutions, singling out the innocent Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson (prosecuted by US Atty Steven Biskupic) among three cases cited.

Wisconsin has been in the national news quite a bit these last few years; few would have believed it would be for corruption and the diminishing integrity of public office for political gain.

I would like to hear what Steven Biskupic has to say about the DoJ's politicalization. Is he for it? Does he dispute that it is taking place?

One part of the Justice Department mess that requires more scrutiny is the growing evidence that the department may have singled out people for criminal prosecution to help Republicans win elections. The House Judiciary Committee has begun investigating several cases that raise serious questions. The panel should determine what role politics played in all of them. ...

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. has requested from U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales documents and information concerning the prosecution of former democratic Gov. Don Siegelman in a letter released yesterday.

Siegelman is widely believed to be a victim of a Karl Rove-engineered prosecution.

The letter was signed by four members of the House Committee on the Judiciary, including Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

The letter slams and asks for information about a total of three prosecutions, including the infamous Georgia Thompson prosecution.

The letter reads in part:

U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) has had enough of the politicized prosecutions of the Bush/Rove Department of Justice.

Davis, a three-term congressman and member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, has taken up the cause of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D), roundly criticizing the DoJ prosecutions of him (one prosecution was dismissed) and calling for a Congressional investigation.

The bizarre conviction of Siegelman this year is drawing nationwide condemnation as a political prosecution engineered by Karl Rove, similar to the prosecution of the innocent Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson, now exonerated.

The outlandish conviction and imprisonment of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman this year is drawing widespread condemnation as a political prosecution engineered by Karl Rove.

The New York Times is calling for a judicial and political examination that would free the wrongfully imprisoned Siegelman, just as the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh District freed and exonerated Wisconsin’s Georgia Thompson.

Some highlights from today’s Times editorial: