Senator Robert Menendez
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator,
I'm writing to lift your spirits.
You can take some solace knowing that if you go to prison, it may signify a tipping point for all Members of Congress. You can smile, thinking to yourself , "They'll all go to jail! And the President may be next." As the Dean of Rutgers Law School and former Attorney General of New Jersey said on December 24, 2014, in his guest editorial on AL.com, "What Governor Siegelman did was far less egregious than President Obama appointing contributors as ambassadors." Professor Farmers' AL.com Guest Editorial
Senator, soon after I was convicted in 2006, I came to Washington to meet with your colleague, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby. Senator Shelby as you may know is notorious for raising bundles of campaign cash from donors seeking his vote or influence. I told Senator Shelby, "Think about it Dick... If they can send me to prison for what I did, they can execute you!"
I am, however, sending you some "good news" by way of my recent "Letter to The Editor" publshed in the WSJ, 5/29/15, "You don't need a quid pro quo to wind up in prison" WSJ Article
The "good news" is that your "bribery" charges may not stick. The U.S. Supreme Court, in their last case defining "bribery" in a campaign contribution setting, said that campaign contributions evoke First Amendment protections therefore, to cross the line from politics to crime, there must be an "explicit" quid pro quo, where the terms of the agreement are "asserted" .McCormick v. United States From what is known of your case, an "explicit" quid pro quo doesn't appear to exist.
But then, the "bad news". Well, at least, bad news for me because I'm in prison for "bribery" based on a campaign contribution where there was no testimony of a quid pro quo, much less an "explicit" one that was "asserted".
To give your lawyers (and perhaps the Clintons') even more to chew on, there was no allegation of self-enrichment, no personal gain or personal benefit. The contribution wasn't even to my campaign.
The campaign contribution that sent me to prison was to the Alabama Education Foundation, supporting a state referendum to benefit public education. The donor, a Fortune 500 CEO, had supported my opponent, and had never contributed to my campaign.
The "official" action? I re-appointed the CEO to a nonpaying board to which he had been appointed by three previous governors. I was the 4th governor to appoint him to the same board. I did nothing else to benefit the CEO. He got five years.
I had two "hung" juries that refused to convict... until the judge emphasized that they could convict by "inferring" or "implying" an agreement. My lawyers objected to the jury instructions because the Circuit Court of Appeals had theretofore adhered to the McCormick standard requiring an "explicit" agreement. The trial judge and the Circuit Court abandoned the McCormick standard and sent me straight to jail.
Just a word of warning: While my case is an anomaly in American Jurisprudence, it is nonetheless legal precedent and can be used against you or against any Member of Congress who votes in favor of a donor's interests.
Don E. Siegelman
Federal Bureau Of Prisons
Governor of Alabama, 1999-2003
Lt. Governor, 1995-1999
Attorney General, 1987-1991
Secretary of State, 1979-1987
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