Siegelman case: Judge may release report on prosecution misconduct allegations
Rickey StokesViewed: 2752
Posted by: RStokes
Date: Apr 18 2017 1:30 AM
A federal judge is considering whether to make public all or part of a federal report regarding allegations of misconduct in the criminal prosecutions of former Alabama governor Donald Siegelman.
Siegelman's son, Joseph Siegelman, in January 2016 filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility after that agency denied his request, under the Freedom of Information Act, for a copy of its report on the misconduct allegations against prosecutors.
The lawsuit, among other things, cites a December 2014 article by the Project On Government Oversight ("POGO") entitled "Justice Department Downplays Evidence of Politics in Probe of GovernorThe article discussed a letter sent from the Office of Legislative Affairs of the DOJ to U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, on June 3, 2010 which purported to summarize the findings of OPR's investigation. In that letter, the DOJ admits that "several" of its officials involved in the Siegelman case acted improperly.
On June 12, 2015, Joseph Siegelman submitted the Freedom of Information Act request to the OPR seeking a copy of the full report of its findings from its investigation that revealed the prosecutorial misconduct referenced in the June 3, 2010 letter and POGO article.
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