Siegelman was accused of trading government favors for campaign donations when he was governor from 1999 to 2003 and lieutenant governor from 1995 to 1999, and Scrushy was accused of arranging $500,000 in donations to Siegelman’s campaign for a state lottery in exchange for a seat on a state hospital regulatory board. (The campaign was in debt for that much, and Siegelman, because he had co-signed the loan, was personally responsible for the debt.) Prosecutors also “claimed Siegelman and his chief of staff, Paul Hamrick, received gifts, including a Honda motorcycle for the governor that he allegedly tried to conceal from investigators. Hamrick reportedly received $25,000 for a new luxury BMW automobile.” On June 29, 2006, a Federal jury found both Siegleman and Scrushy guilty on one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, four counts of honest services mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.
After reading your post I can’t think of one politician who has not committed the same. Name one donation that did not result in some benefit. Politics as usual.
Geez, I am shocked, shocked that a politician would ever do that.
Scrushy was a respiratory therapist who built a business, but he was a piece of work. In his heyday he backed a sales tax increase in Birmingham to subsidize a domed stadium. When the measure failed, he denied that only bigwigs such as himself wanted it. In a radio interview he noted that it was supported as well by the "little people".