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Posted on 03/11/2018 11:10:57 AM PDT by Bodleian_Girl
When state Rep. Oliver Robinson used the mantle of his office to fight an environmental cleanup effort in north Birmingham, he did so because he was paid.
He spoke out in public meetings. He copied and pasted letters written for him by alleged co-conspirators onto his official letterhead. He encouraged people who lived in those polluted neighborhoods to not get their soil tested for toxic substances.
Again, he did all this because he was getting paid. He said so in his plea deal with federal prosecutors.
But when those same folks -- the ones accused of paying Robinson -- needed help from then-Sen. Jeff Sessions and then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, they got their help for free.
At least if you don't count the campaign donations.
Sessions fought EPA cleanup
Not long after Sessions became United States Attorney General, he recused himself from the the Justice Department's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, he defended his decision this way:
"Recusal is not an admission of any wrongdoing," Sessions said. "It's simply ... whether or not you can be perceived as fairly deciding a case or evaluating a case."
Most impartial spectators, if not the president, agreed Sessions' decision to step away from that investigation was a sound one.
But if Sessions had good reason, even if for appearances only, to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, he has a long list of reason to step away from the Robinson case, and yet he hasn't, even when pressed on it by one of his former colleagues, Sen. Patrick Leahy.
First, his Senate office has been a recruiting ground for the law firm at the center of the Robinson corruption scandal, Balch & Bingham, and Balch partners have represented Sessions personally, including in his confirmation hearings last year.
Second, the firm was Sessions' second largest campaign contributor.
Third, Drummond Co. -- whose vice president, David Roberson, is now under indictment for bribing Robinson -- was Sessions' third largest campaign contributor.
But this week, an investigation by the Project on Government Oversight and Mother Jones revealed just how deeply involved Sessions and his Senate office were in fighting the EPA's cleanup efforts in north Birmingham.
According to records obtained by POGO, Sessions and his staff coordinated with other lawmakers and put intense pressure on the EPA in 2016 to prevent the site from being added to the National Priorities List.
That NPL designation could have left polluters in north Birmingham, including Drummond Co., on the hook for cleanup costs.
ADVERTISING
Full circle
Preventing the NPL designation is why, according to federal prosecutors, Roberson and two lawyers from Balch & Bingham, Joel Gilbert and Steve McKinney, conspired to bribe Robinson to fight the EPA.
Sessions' efforts to thwart the EPA and the alleged scheme to bribe Robinson were effectively working toward the same goal.
Shortly after accepting an appointment to be the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jay Town said he believed Gilbert, McKinney and Roberson acted alone in the alleged corruption scheme with Robinson. Their employers, Drummond Co. and Balch & Bingham, were not accused of any crimes, and the investigation essentially ended there.
Town's boss is Sessions.
Strange bedfellows
Sessions wasn't the only public official resisting the NPL designation. The Alabama Attorney General's office has been pushing back, too, all while communicating and coordinating about it with Balch lawyers, according to emails obtained by AL.com through a public information request.
On Oct. 23, 2014, Strange sent a formal letter to the EPA, calling the NPL listing "premature" and "futile." It has been pointed out before, this letter followed less than a week after Drummond Co. contributed $25,000 to Strange's reelection campaign, and Drummond was Strange's third largest donor in that election cycle.
What hasn't been evident before was how closely Strange's office and the Balch lawyers Gilbert and McKinney were working together.
When Strange's administrative assistant emailed the letter to the EPA, she blind carbon copied three lawyers in the Alabama Attorney General's office -- and Gilbert at Balch.
Essentially, Strange's office was letting Gilbert read their correspondence with the EPA without the EPA knowing Gilbert could see it.
And the Attorney General's office's coordination with Gilbert didn't stop there. Additional emails show that Robert Tambling, the chief of the environmental section, followed up on Nov. 4, 2014, after the EPA apparently failed to respond to Strange's first letter.
Tambling immediately forwarded a copy of his email to the EPA to Gilbert at Balch, writing to him, "Joel, Hope this helps. RT"
A few minutes later, Gilbert wrote back, "Can't hurt ... Thanks."
Where are the good guys?
At the heart of Robinson's crimes was his betrayal of his constituents, but the reality is, Robinson's old Alabama House district was mostly adjacent to the affected area. He shared few actual constituents in the Superfund site or a proposed expansion of the site.
However, two former Alabama elected officials can't say the same.
As a senator, Sessions' district was the entire state. Likewise, as Alabama Attorney General, Luther Strange was supposed to look after the interests of every Alabamian.
But when those folks in Tarrant, Inglenook, Collegeville needed someone to look out for their interests, who was there to represent them?
It wasn't Jeff Sessions.
Nor was it Luther Strange.
(Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.)
Kyle’s biggest problem in the article is his unwillingness to impugn someone he sees as an ally, Oliver Robinson.
He’d have a stronger case against Jeff Sessions and Luther Strange if he’d stop tiptoeing around what Robinson actually did.
“Most impartial spectators, if not the president, agreed Sessions’ decision to step away from that investigation was a sound one.”
Bull crap. I knew you knew, he knew everyone knew that Russian collusion was a democrat gambit. Therefore he recused himself from NOTHING. This set the stage for the criminal Rosenfeinstein to appoint the Mule and create the utter cluster Obama we have on our hands.
Totally agree.
But you know, Kyle being a liberal and all, he has to toe the Pravda line.
He’s got one reason to step away from it, and several million to go neck deep!
The hit pieces keep rolling along
I’m sure the normal average American is tired of the crap
And especially RUUSSIA
Thank you for using “toe” there.
You are welcome.
Here is what Kyle Whitmire said in another article. Different subject but it helps me see where he is coming from. I wouldn’t believe much of anything he has to say.
“Right now President @realDonaldTrump is throwing whatever chaff he can find to disrupt special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation of his White House and his campaign. He tweets “Witch Hunt!” almost as often as he scapegoats illegal immigrants. He’s already fired or forced out top officials at the Justice Department and the FBI. Now the people he hired to replace the people he fired are threatening to quit — if he doesn’t fire them next. He huffs and puffs and, if he has to, he’ll blow the whole White House down.”
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/02/its_always_a_witch_hunt.html
Boy, am I glad that Dorkbama the Muslim eunuch quota boy and Hillary, the woman hating uber liar, alcoholic and non achiever didn’t do that for their donors.
No doubt that Kyle is a leftist pansy wansy. He’s always been that way but now it’s worse because he has to go further left to keep the militant lesbian editor satisfied with what he writes.
About 40% of the staff has been laid off in recent years. And he and his wife are both dependent on the paper for their jobs/livelihood.
But here’s the deal: he’s right about Sessions and Strange and their ties to Balch Bingham and Drummond.
Oliver Robinson is either in federal prison or headed there shortly.
He should have company.
He should have just played it safe and sold a major portion of control of our country’s Uranium to Russia.
“But here’s the deal: he’s right about Sessions and Strange and their ties to Balch Bingham and Drummond.”
What ties? You mean campaign donations? So what?
One can look at Sessions’ past campaign donations here if they want to waste their time
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00003062
Sessions’ problem has nothing to do with that BS article. Sessions’ problem is he is too stiff and straight and lacks the guts to do what’s needed and go after dems. He won’t do it because he thinks it is politicizing the AG office. Trump won’t replace him for whatever reason.
Sessions: obviously not a straight arrow guy.
We just didn’t know that until now.
Sessions is swamp.
Who, exactly, would care about this merde?’
Seriously, who?
Kyle forgot to name the potential NPL (National Priorities List) site (which would be designated a Superfund site for cleanup litigation and funds).
The one thing the EPA can do is to name an NPL site but it has to meet certain evidence requirements. A state can also do the same thing within their own state environmental cleanup organizations re local companies pollution, but NPL sites normally have to have a federal government connection, usually a contractual one for the production of a product or service that creates pollution.
This sounds like a case of politics as usual but I’m hoping that Sessions didn’t do anything unethical or illegal.
That’s for the courts in Alabama to decide.
If the site does get on the NPL for litigation and cleanup purposes, it might cross my desk if there are cross-claims involved in who is responsible for what. That is a different kettle of fish, often full of sharks and minnows.
Methinks Whitmore extrapolates too much.
Both articles are splendid examples of it. In the case of the second article, *plain talk, he lies outright. The IG forced the obvious removal of the communist inspired cabal at the FBI, not Trump. How was Mueller going to look if he rejected the IG proof (in black and white text exchanges) of bias and breach of protocol, and McCabe’s own testimony before Congress??
In our thread article, Kyle boy does not implicate Sessions as much as the law firm, and connects Sessions use of them in business and in private.
But, at first blush, you have to admit that the earned reputation of the EPA was one of the mosted hated chorus line of unelected, unaccountable, entitled, arrogant and lying bunch of Leftist stooges, all around the country, against privacy and land rights, and for breaking their targets with heavy handed law suits, against private citizens and industry, making the case that Sessions had a case, to tell them to back off and go to hades.
Sessions had a reason and Kyle Whitmore left it out. Jeff was not a stupid man, by any measure. He’s just out of his league and the universe of his experience trying to warm a seat as Attorney General.
Mr. Magoo needs to resign.
I’m sure he’s got a nice Swamp retirement package.
roy moore supporters are still fighting the last (lost) battle.
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