That would be Dunnica Lampton of the Southern District of Mississippi.
Within the last minutes, both Sailor and Coyoteville have alerted me to today’s long piece at RawStory.com, The US Attorney who wasn’t fired: How Bush pick helped prosecute top Democrat-backed judge.
Larissa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane’s investigative story traces the relationships of Lampton, Karl Rove, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bill Canary, Keith Starrett, Haley Barbour, Jack Abramoff, and George W. Bush’s “Justice” Department (et al.), and how they converged in the effort to “Siegelman” Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz. Two charts accompanying the article illustrate the connections between various playahs, and a photo finally shows those of us who don’t know what Dunn Lampton looks like.
I’ll be most interested in your reactions when you’ve had a chance to read, study these charts, and ponder . . .
Holy Mackeral, Sapphire!!! Too bad they couldn’t have included Team Scruggs in the family tree….the ties are obvious to those of us who have been folo’ing along.
Fer sher, Phantom. Pity they haven’t noticed us down heah . . .
Well, here’s Scott Horton’s reaction to the article.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002770
Ooo, good one, Coyoteville — shorter and crisper than some of his, and really makes good use of the RS chart.
I’m a big Robert Jackson-fan too, so nice to see him brought to bear there.
The chart makes me think of that Kevin Bacon game where everything is connected back to him.
I’m no fan of the US Chamber and their judicial attack ads or of Karl Rove but I’m thinking that maybe some of these connections are a bit tenuous. Some are interesting though.
Try this one, dd511dd,
Alec Baldwin played DeLaughter in ‘Ghosts of Mississippi’ and Al Pacino starred in ‘The Insider’ – a story about Scruggs.
Alec Baldwin and Al Pacino were both in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross.’
KEVIN BACON!!!
Is that how it works?
I think some of the connections are tenuous also, dd511dd. For example, we have been informed by a folo blogger, out of wind, that it was she who first took indications of corruption to the US attorney about Minor and Diaz. According to out of wind, Lampton refused to investigate Minor and Diaz because of the Scruggs/Lott connection. She then approached the FBI. That does not appear to be a politically motivated prosecution to me.
Early on I heard many people announce that the indictment of Scruggs was politically motivated, but we have seen that Judge’s Lackey’s action was the basis for that investigation.
OTOH, if you drew a chart showing political and money connections between the gulf coast buddies—well, it would be interesting. I think you would see those connections cross party lines. It’s more of a political power network, rather than a party network. Remember Mike Moore’s close relationship with Republican Larkin Smith. It’s about power and those you can control with that power. It is very Mafia-like.
Power + Money = Control, Nomiss.
That’s my thesis of what this crowd’s about (they can sometimes use partisan politics as means to their ends, but otherwise ideology is immaterial to them).
I think it is power plus corruption equals control; money protects the power.
Nomiss, I really question the credibility of out of wind’s claims.
Don’t know, sailor. I was preoccupied with other things during Minor’s prosecution, so I didn’t follow the trial. However, he was convicted in a trial jury, and Jennifer Diaz did admit to loans from Minor. Although there was no quid quo pro established in the Diaz case and he was acquitted, the object was to establish power and control over these public officials for personal benefit.
I’ve talked to many people native to the coast who have long known about Minor’s political “contributions,” and they have said that the purpose is to establish that “I own you” mentality. They say that’s it’s hard to get elected without that power backing of these strong politicos.
I think there is truth in many of out of wind’s comments. I just wish she would be more specific in her allegations. I keep remembering Margaret Mitchell’s comments when her husband John Mitchell was USAG. She kept yelling fire in the White House, fire in the White House, and everyone thought she was crazy. Of course, she was telling people about Nixon’s dirty tricks, but she was laughed at. After Margaret’s death, a wreath was placed on her gravesite with a message that read “Margaret was right.”
Wasn’t Minor known as the “judge maker?”
I don’t doubt that politics came our in the prosecution, but Minor did do the things he was accused of, so that kind of negates the politics of it for me anyway.
Curly, I agree with you. I really don’t think the Minor prosecution was political. Maybe (and I don’t know whether it’s true) the non-prosecution of Scruggs for the same kinds of doings was political — but to me, that doesn’t excuse Minor’s conduct.
Sometimes I just have to laugh at some of these wild conspiracy theories. Partisans on both sides have come up with some real doozies over the years. I was exploring around on the Raw Story site and see that they believe 9/11 was some kind of conspiracy, too. That kind of stuff turned me off when the right-wingers tried to accuse Bill Clinton of umpteen murders, and it fares no better with me coming from the left. But it was entertaining to read anyway.
Minor’s misdeeds are legion. Just ask court reporters he refused to pay for legitimate work. He had a reputation for cheating. And according to a former law partner, he bragged how he loved to cheat people out of money.
I forwarned friends and sure enough, he tried to first get them beholding, used them, then offered to pay only part of what he owned them. He was often seen drunk in the middle of the day which in the end, brought about his return to jail while awaiting trial. He pulled the rug out from under me after he insisted he wanted to help, a frequent action he employed to satisfy his need to adversely affect other people. Much like Scruggs, he is “bent”. Why have all that money if your whole plan is to cheat people unless you are devoid of a whole range of normal emotions? During the early days of hell, aka Katrina, he flew his plane to Ocean Springs. His desparate neighbors thought someone had come to help only to learn he was only there to see about his wine collection! A judge friend told me when he was appointed to fill a vacancy that Minor told him: I am the judge maker for S. MS….nobody gets to be a judge unless I say so!
Can you tell by my tone why some of us are sicken when others claim his indictment was political?
He was corrupt and he got caught. And he got caught by a bank examiner, which alerted the Feds of some strange loan arrangements resulting in his attempt to cover up his involvment . If these loans were not corrupt, why did he devise such elaborate schemes to cover them up, including asking innocent out of town friends to pay them off with his cash? You read in Anita Lee’s story what Scruggs told Jennifer Diaz….essentially he said, if Paul Minor doesn’t pay off your loan I will withhold his (tobacco )money. The street here on the Coast knows the truth and we are pulling for the Feds to bring down others, most of them associated with the Tobacco case. The straight up judges never liked him; legitimate lawyers did not like him, and few trusted Paul Minor. At his sentencing he said: “Somebody else needs to be standing next to me and that person is Dickie Scruggs. ” It is very possible he has played a role in telling the Feds where some of the bodies are buried. We only have scratched the surface of the corruption brought about from the Tobacco Money…..but don’t try to paint Minor as victim!!! That old, smelly dog won’t hunt..
Amen, catty!
Voices of reason. Thanks to the last several posters!
Cat mama, you said it way more eloquently that I.
Hell, I drove down through that thing with supplies and munitions and it was hell for about 10 days. Just wild wild west. We had ice to trade with, and could buy beer for ice… and most anything else!
catty-how did he pull the rug out from under you? I was in the lobby of a new Orleans hotel one weekend when I heard a loud drunken voice proclaiming, “I own every judge in Mississippi.” when I turned to see where this profanity was coming, it was our own Mr. Minor. Such were his delusions of grandeur that I guess alot if people thought were true.
I heard Dickie applied for an ambassadorship, during his background check these questionable t/as with certain judges were revealed. He cut an unofficial deal (with Trent and Ashcroft’s help) to serve up Paul Minor. I heard that’s how Paul got busted.
Don’t know doodledy-squat about “converged in the effort to ‘Siegelman’ Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz” … other than as an almost 20 year resident of Alabama, I can attest that Don Siegelman is a smiling, but dishonest political scum bag with more illicit relationships than a Mafia don.
So to hear anyone say someone has been ‘Siegelmanned’ means that they have only gotten a little of what they so deserve.
Naw, justsittin, Dickie may want people to think he served up Minor with a deal, but, as catty said, a bank examiner turned him in.
I’ve also heard that Minor would get drunk and start publicly bragging that he “owned” judges.
JustolMoi, did Siegelman go around with Friday night feet in his Sunday shoes?
Nomiss, … only while ‘doing the alligator’ on the people of Alabama.
Some of y’all apparently know Paul Minor first-hand and I don’t, so all I can say is that the behavior you’re reporting, if I’d witnessed it, would have disgusted me too, and I have no reason to doubt your reports.
What I know of Don Siegelman’s history is what I’ve gleaned from the national media, online and off-, so I can’t rebut JOM’s claims of local observation either.
That said, we’re not dealing with mutually-exclusive possibilities here, are we? Minor could richly deserve his eleven years in jail, Siegelman could be no better than the usual Southern pol, and still what Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, et al. were up to in pursuing them could be more corrupt than anything they and Dickie Scruggs combined ever dreamed of.
Apparently the 52 state attorneys general — many of them Republicans — who stood up to protest the prosecution/persecution of Siegelman by the Bush DoJ and its allies believe that to be the case. So Siegelman’s upcoming testimony to Congress and the new 60 Minutes segment are must-watches for me, because I want to hear what BushCo has tried so hard to keep from us.
Pre-Scruggs, I used to monitor Raw Story regularly but must have missed that 9/11-conspiracy stuff MSlawyer spotted (can’t recall, but if I’d seen such headlines, I probably wouldn’t have clicked on them). I know a few people harbor such suspicions, but that talk has always been WAY too far out there for my tinfoil.
Still, if there’s one thing I believe it’s that it’ll be years if ever before anyone catalogs all the crimes of the Bush Administration. Hard to believe that this country can ever again produce offenders to equal these, and it flat takes my breath away every time I try to contemplate all we’ve lived to see from this government.
My bottom line: even if y’all are right that Siegelman was bad and Minor was awful, they’re nothings compared to the dirt on the other side of the v.
Lotus — you should read a book called “The Crime of 1873″ about the Comstock Lode. We’ve been this way for a long time. I’ll tell you about it on Sat’dee.
Shux, Curly, the blog just ate my comment, which was:
Kewl! (Though of course as to BushCo, I’m not just talking domestic crimes.)
Anyhoo, SHO looking forward to our meet-up and getting to show y’all some of St. Augustine!
Down here we know a thing or two about the Clinton Administration as well. Common knowledge here about the Feds going after a big, high profile person who up and gave a “huge” gift to DMC and suddenly the indictment was ordered halted by Janet Reno. This is not fantasy, this is fact and well known here. I spent 6 weeks observering the eventual trial where the big guy took the Fifth and let two innocent businessmen go to prison for 4 years! Only pleasure I got was telling off the big guy one day when he approached me(and I have witnesses) and let him know the blame was on him for putting two innocent men in jail! Sad too the Big guy made money on the sale of the land which put the two innocent men in jail. Again, the big guy’s lawyer told me the story about Reno’s stepping in to stop the indictment. I kept the secret to myself, only to have another lawyer tell me it was all over the Coast. It was out because the big guy told the story; said it was the best money he ever spent. My point: Corruption under Clinton too! P. S. Minor and big guy, Scruggs, Presley…..all tied together under Musgrove.
catty27, can you give us a link to that? i mean since the big guy came out and told the story? if the big guy’s lawyer told you about janet reno stepping in was he violating some kind of attorney/client privilege?
catty, ‘fraid I can’t make head-r-tail of those hints, but I certainly am convinced the Clintons were corrupt too — one reason I’m sick to see HRC hanging in so long now.
Janet Reno is a very straight arrow, however (from a whole family of them) — thus not at all a fave of that White House. You’d have a hard if not impossible time convincing me she’s EVER had anything to do with the least skulduggery.
Oh Boy! Who thinks they can put together the flow chart with the following pieces to make some kind of sense:1. Diaz writes separate opinion in Edwards’ case blasting Stephen Hayne, 2. DOJ rep a. knows all about Edmonds case (even though nobody else seems to) and b. ACCIDENTALLY gives the specific name of the hypothetical medical examiner I was referring to when I made a casual inquiry about whether DOJ would look into a problem with a medical examiner. To quote Kelly Cunningham at DOJ: “That boys is going to get a new trial!!! I just called up an attorney I know in MS, and he says he’s never even heard of DR. STEPHEN HAYNE!”
3. Meanwhile, MS AG allegedly calls members of the House of Reps telling them to vote down HB 727 (Tyler’s law) which they had previously voted on and supported TWICE. 4, MS AG says Hayne is a great guy and credible professional.
Help me out here. I need a flow chart and the missing links.
I’m new to this site but find it awesome!!! My comment to this Raw article is that perhaps they have read a few too many John Grisham books. BTW Donna Lampton’s EX-Husband is kin to Dunn Lampton…
No, no, no, Lolly, you’ve got it all wrong. They haven’t read too many John Grisham books…Rather, to live in MS is to live in a John Grisham book.
Virginia 32
You’re right! What could I have been thinking!!!
Catty; minor, scruggs and Presley were tied together long long before musgrove, who is big guy and how did Paul minor pull a rug out from under you? Who were the business men who went to jail and why?
Can someone explain to me the Presley story and how he, Minor and Scruggs were tied together, and then how that connected to Musgrove?
Catty?