Republican Lawyer Interview with House Judiciary Panel Released

Dana Jill Simpson wasn’t just worried about Rove’s involvement in Gov. Don Siegelman’s (D-AL) case. She also testified that she heard about a behind-the-scenes arrangement to ensure which judge would get the case — a judge sure to “hang” Siegelman.

Simpson said that Gov. Bob Riley’s (R) son, Rob Riley, told her in a 2005 conversation — one where Riley also said that Rove was pushing to have the Justice Department investigate Siegelman — that Judge Mark Fuller would get the case because Fuller, an active Republican, had a beef with Siegelman over an audit.

We’ve posted the portion of the interview where Simpson discusses Fuller here.

Q And did he talk to you about Mark Fuller’s politics or political work?

[Simpson] He did.

Q What did you talk about in that regard?

[Simpson] I asked him — he made a statement that Fuller would hang Don Siegelman. And I asked him how he knew that, if he got him in his court. And he said that Fuller was — had been on the Executive Republican Committee at Alabama — in Alabama before he been a judge and he also told me about a backlogging case, which is what you call the salary spike. He called it the “backlogging.”

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Q And did [Riley] say any more about what Don Siegelman had to do with those audits that put Mark Fuller out?

[Simpson] He said that Don Siegelman had caused Fuller to get audited. That’s what Fuller thought. He hated him for that.

Fuller also contracts which the federal government, which Simpson said played a part in her decision to sign her original affidavit raising questions about the origins of Siegelman’s case.