There is extensive evidence that the prosecution of former Governor Don Siegelman was directed or promoted by Washington officials, likely including former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Advisor to the President Karl Rove, and that political considerations influenced the decision to bring charges.

Several witnesses have corroborated testimony before two Judiciary Subcommittees that the investigation against Governor Siegelman was “coming to a close” without charges until Washington officials directed local prosecutors to
go back over the matter from top to bottom, and that decisions regarding the Siegelman case were being made at the very highest levels of the Administration.3

That testimony in turn corroborates the sworn statements of a Republican attorney that the son of the Republican Governor of Alabama told her that Karl Rove had pressed the Department to bring charges.4 The issue of the involvement of Mr. Rove or others at the White House in the Siegelman case remains an important open question.

Karl Rove has said in the past he had no conversations with the White House about Siegelman. That raises the issue of whether there is any executive privilege for him to assert on the Siegelman case. Even if there isn't, the Committee is also investigating the U.S. Attorney firings, and Rove has asserted the White House privilege there.

Gov. Siegelman was on the Abrams Report tonight. He suggests the Judiciary Committee subpoena associates of Karl Rove for whom the White House doesn't have an executive privilege claim.

Rep. Conyers today differentiated Rove's case from Harriet Miers, noting Miers hasn't made any public statements.

If the Committee holds Rove in contempt, the likely