Along with the state officials and law professors who are happy that the Supreme Court this week is reviewing the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, add inmate No. 24775-001 at the federal prison in Oakdale, La.
He is otherwise known as Don E. Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, whom many of those same people supported when the justices decided — twice — that his conviction did not warrant an extended review.
“I’m not the slightest bit bitter about that at all,” Siegelman said last week in a telephone interview from prison. “I’m delighted that the court has taken the McDonnell case, and I’m hopeful the court will clarify what constitutes political quid pro quo bribery.”
[Supreme Court to review McDonnell’s corruption conviction]
Most convicted politicians who ask the Supreme Court for relief — former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and former congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana being just recent examples — meet fates similar to Siegelman’s.
But the longtime Alabama officeholder was the cause celebre — still is, really — for those who believe vague federal corruption laws give politically ambitious prosecutors too much leeway in deciding what and whom to investigate. Such questions about political influence are only likely to grow as relaxed campaign contribution laws give rise to a new galaxy of individual mega-donors.
While the Supreme Court never accepted Siegelman’s case for full briefing, McDonnell grabbed the brass ring twice.
Not only is the court reviewing his 2014 conviction in its last oral argument of the term Wednesday, but the justices intervened at the final hour last fall to keep McDonnell from having to report to prison while the legal drama played out.
That was something the court had never done before, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. told the justices before they acted.
I am one of the few people who does not think Bob McDonnell should go to jail. Why? He broke no Virginia laws. He was the Virginia governor and he obeyed the laws of the state. Do I like all his decisions? Absolutely not. However, I hope I am bi-partisan enough to defend a person when I feel they are being railroaded.
I don’t give a flying flip if his wife goes to jail. She was fairly reprehensible. Bob McDonnell just ended up being a chump. Being a chump isn’t really illegal. The one who grates on me is Johnny Williams. Now that’s the guy who should be in jail. Cuccinelli had also be thankful that there were bigger fish to fry than him also. He would and probably should be McDonnell’s cell mate if that is how it ends up.
The Supreme Court hears McDonnell’s case on Wednesday. May the force be with him.
