the case that i'm here to talk about this morning, united states versus philip kelly "bobo" don eugene siegelman and paul michael henry, is a glaring exception to the general rule. that case was handed down by a grand jury in may of 2004. by which time a fairly new united states attorney was in her third year. the case just didn't, just didn't spring up. like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it had an earlier existence. two years earlier, the united states attorney had prosecuted and convicted tuscaloosa dr. philip vogel, medicaid fraud. he was a friend of governor siegelman, who, in the same year, 2002, had been narrowly defeated in his re-election bid. by 2004, ex-governor siegelman was leading in the polls for the next gubernatorial race, and that's for both potential democratic and republican candidates. dr. vogel had a number of contracts with medicaid to provide medical care in the western area of alabama's -- it was alleged he had violated the state's competitive bid laws and committed other acts of fraud in connection with those contracts. he was tried, convicted. the case went to the 11

that in any event, it was the attorney general, bill frey, who had hired the former law firm, not don siegelman. pointed out that since their graduation from yale and columbia law school, she's on her own, more or less. i pointed out that i tried numerous criminal and civil cases since my sister's conviction without objection from the government, and so i proceeded on in the case. i denied dr. bobo's motion for double jeopardy, i mean motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy grounds, and the government then filed a motion to disqualify mr. siegelman's lawyers. and i granted the motion. no theless, the united states attorney, with the wreckless impermada of the highest levels of the justice department filed a motion asking me to disqualify myself. of course dinid the motion and the justice department rushed to the 11th circuit to have me removed from the case, but the panel of two democratic appointees and one republican denied the requested mandamus petition. in the meantime the united states attorneys office rather blatantly attempted to poison the jury pool. on a friday afternoon, mr. siege